Disease-avoidance model: factor analysis of common animal fears

This paper reports the results of two studies investigating a disease-avoidance model of common animal fears. In Study 1, a factor analysis of a variety of self-rated animal fears revealed that these fears can be grouped into two theoretically meaningful categories which correspond to predatory animals and fear-relevant animals. Study 2 found a significant correlation between disgust sensitivity and fear to animals in the fear-relevant category, but not between disgust sensitivity and fear to animals in the predatory category. In addition, fear of animals in the fear-relevant category was significantly associated with scores on the obsessive washing sub-scale of the Maudsley Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory, but was not associated with obsessive behaviour in general.