Relationship Between Disgust Propensity and Contamination Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms: The Mediating Role of Information Processing Bias

Background: Early studies showed that disgust contributes to developing the contamination obsessive-compulsive disorder (COCD) and fear of contamination. Despite considering disgust to explain the fear of contamination as a symptom of C-OCD, there are few studies on the mediating role of information processing bias (IPB) in the relationship between disgust propensity (DP) and the fear of contamination. Objectives: The current study aimed at exploring the mediating role of IPB between DP and fear of contamination. Methods: The current descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 386 students selected by cluster sampling method. The employed tools were disgust propensity and sensitivity scale-revised (DPSS-R), the Padua inventory (PI), obsessive beliefs questionnaire (OBQ), and spatial cueing task. Data were analyzed with Amos-22 software. Bootstrap methods were used to analyze the mediating role. Results: Results of the structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated that the proposed model had a good fitness [GFI (goodness of fit index), TLI (the Tucker-Lewis index), and CFI (comparative fit index) > 0.95 and RMSEA (root mean square error of approximation) = 0.03]. The results showed that the relationship between DP and fear of contamination was mediated by IPB. Conclusions: Results indicated the impact of disgust propensity on fear of contamination through information processing. These findings emphasized that information processing is essential to explain C-OCD.