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 correspo nd to predatory animals and fear-relevant animals. Study 2 found a sig nificant correlation between disgust sensitivity and fear to animals i n the fear-relevant category, but not between disgust sensitivity and fear to animals in the predatory category. In addition, fear of animal s in the fear-relevant category was significantly associated with scor es on the obsessive washing sub-scale of the Maudsley Obsessive-Compul sive Inventory, but was not associated with obsessive behaviour in gen eral.