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

Early studies showed that disgust contributes to developing the contamination obsessive-compulsive disorder (C-OCD) 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. The current study aimed at exploring the mediating role of IPB between DP and fear of contamination. 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 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. 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