My baby doesn't smell as bad as yours: intimate social bond or elicitor familiarity?

The factors that influence the intensity of disgust to core elicitors (e.g., faeces) have received scant attention. Tolerance might result from repeated exposure to disgust elicitors or the intimacy of the social bond with the source of the disgust elicitor. In Study 1, mothers of infants completed a self-report questionnaire about their reactions to changing their baby's faeces-soiled nappy compared to changing that of a strange baby's nappy. In Study 2, mothers of infants were presented with a series of trials in which they smelled concealed samples of their own baby's faeces-soiled nappy and that of a strange baby. In addition, the source of the samples was either correctly or incorrectly identified. The results are discussed in terms of the important influence that social bonds have on the emotion of disgust.