Disgust, anxiety, and vasovagal syncope sensations: A comparison of injection-fearful and nonfearful blood donors

Although research has implicated disgust in the fainting response observed in blood-injection-injury (BII) phobia, this finding has not been consistently observed in the literature. The present study further examines the relationship between disgust and fainting symptoms among injection-fearful (n = 108) and nonfearful (n = 338) blood donors. Volunteers from community blood drives provided pre-donation levels of anxiety and disgust towards giving blood and completed a standardized measure of vasovagal reactions (fainting) to blood donation after giving blood. As predicted, injection-fearful participants reported significantly more pre-donation anxiety and disgust compared to nonfearful participants. Injection-fearful donors also reported experiencing more fainting symptoms during blood donation and found the donation experience more unpleasant than did nonfearful participants. Although pre-donation disgust and anxiety levels each uniquely predicted fainting symptoms among nonfearful donors, only pre-donation anxiety uniquely predicted fainting symptoms among injection-fearful donors. Implications of these findings for conceptualizing the disgust–faint relationship in BII phobia are discussed.