Six Varieties of Sexual Disgust

Transformative new research examines sexual disgust — including where it comes from, what behaviors evoke it, and the main ways we experience it.

Sexuality is undergoing an apparent sea-change on a collective level, yet is it true?

For many, divergence from conventional sexuality is seen as deviant and dangerous. While sexual attitudes are shifting toward greater acceptance of formerly off-limits behaviors, including open relationships, short-term sexual relationships — and greater variety in acceptable sexual behavior, including same sex activity and heightened sexual adventurousness — for others, anything but vanilla is repugnant.

What is healthy sexuality? There are grey areas, and while some behaviors are overtly considered universally problematic, they may be tolerated, or worse.

An Evolutionary Basis for Disgust

Disgust in general is a core experience, keeping us away from all kinds of nasty. For example, food that tastes bad often makes us sick, and disgust keeps us from eating poisonous food. At the same time, too much disgust means no one ever eats anything new, which could be deadly in times of scarcity.

Sexual disgust may serve important survival functions, protecting against disease transmission, keeping us from making problematic mate choices, and stopping us from doing things that could cause social…