Fear, Disgust, and Avoidance Among Blood-Injection-Injury Phobics Exposed to Threatening Stimuli

The current study examined the role of fear, disgust, and avoidance of injection and animal reminder disgust stimuli among BII phobics following exposure to fearful and disgusting images. Participants were separated into the Injection, Mutilation, or Control Group, and would view injection, mutilation, or flower images, respectively. Participants engaged in a hypodermic needle BAT and severed deer leg BAT prior to viewing the images and again following exposure. It was hypothesized that fear is most closely linked to the injection stimuli and would decrease with exposure, while disgust is most closely linked to the mutilation stimuli and would decrease with exposure. The hypotheses were not supported and there was no significance found between groups. However, as expected, the phobic group was significantly more afraid of and disgusted with BII relevant stimuli than non-phobics, although the severed deer leg was found to be much more aversive than the hypodermic needle.