Chan Kai Qin, Holland Rob W, van Loon Ruud, Arts Roy, van Knippenberg Ad
Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen.
Emotion. 2016 Aug;16(5):740-9. doi: 10.1037/emo0000113. Epub 2016 Apr 11.
Odors provide information regarding the chemical properties of potential environment hazards. Some of this information may be disgust-related (e.g., organic decay), whereas other information may be fear-related (e.g., smoke). Many studies have focused on how disgust and fear, as prototypical avoidant emotions, facilitate the detection of possible threats, but these studies have typically confined to the visual modality. Here, we examine how disgust and fear influence olfactory detection at a particular level-the level at which a subliminal olfactory stimulus crosses into conscious perception, also known as a detection threshold. Here, using psychophysical methods that allow us to test perceptual capabilities directly, we show that one way that disgust (Experiments 1-3) and fear (Experiment 3) facilitate detection is by lowering the amount of physical input that is needed to trigger a conscious experience of that input. This effect is particularly strong among individuals with high disgust sensitivity (Experiments 2-3). Our research suggests that a fundamental way in which avoidant emotions foster threat detection is through lowering perceptual thresholds. (PsycINFO Database Record
气味提供了有关潜在环境危害化学特性的信息。其中一些信息可能与厌恶相关（例如，有机物腐烂），而其他信息可能与恐惧相关（例如，烟雾）。许多研究都集中在厌恶和恐惧这两种典型的回避情绪如何促进对可能威胁的察觉，但这些研究通常局限于视觉模态。在这里，我们研究厌恶和恐惧如何在一个特定层面上影响嗅觉察觉——即阈下嗅觉刺激进入意识感知的层面，也就是所谓的察觉阈值。在这里，我们使用能够直接测试感知能力的心理物理学方法，表明厌恶（实验1 - 3）和恐惧（实验3）促进察觉的一种方式是降低触发对该输入的有意识体验所需的物理输入量。在厌恶敏感性高的个体中，这种效应尤为明显（实验2 - 3）。我们的研究表明，回避情绪促进威胁察觉的一种基本方式是通过降低感知阈值。（《心理学文摘数据库记录》 ）
