Pathogen disgust survey dataset

A pathogen disgust survey comprised of 30 disgust elicitor statements derived from infectious disease transmission routes was used. Participants were asked to rate their disgust towards each item on a scale from 1-100 from no disgust to extreme disgust. In addition to these disgust elicitor statements participants completed two attention checker questions and were also asked to indicate how often they experienced disgust. Basic demographic data including age, occupation and gender was also collected.

Data collection

All data were collected using the online participant recruitment platform Prolific (www.prolific.co) and the Gorilla Experiment Builder (www.gorilla.sc) to create and host all experiments. All study participants were aged between 18 and 65 and were UK nationals resident in the UK at the time of the study. The infection status of participants was not determined. Data were collected in two stages; once before the COVID-19 pandemic (09/06/19 (T1)) and once during the pandemic (between 13/03/20 and 07/04/20 (T2)) . The 2020 cohort consisted of a repeated sampling of the 2019 cohort (N = 151 (T2 repeat)) and a new sample (N = 189 (T2 new)). All received financial payment for taking part in the study (£1.25).

Ethics and consent

This research has received ethical approval following review by The Open University’s Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC/3231/McMullan/Carr) and adheres to all BPS ethics standards.