### abstract ###
people live in a world in which they are surrounded by potential disgust elicitors such as  used  chairs  air  silverware  and money as well as excretory activities
people function in this world by ignoring most of these  by active avoidance  reframing  or adaptation
the issue is particularly striking for professions  such as morticians  surgeons  or sanitation workers  in which there is frequent contact with major disgust elicitors
in this study  we study the  adaptation  process to dead bodies as disgust elicitors  by measuring specific types of disgust sensitivity in medical students before and after they have spent a few months dissecting a cadaver
using the disgust scale  we find a significant reduction in disgust responses to death and body envelope violation elicitors  but no significant change in any other specific type of disgust
there is a clear reduction in discomfort at touching a cold dead body  but not in touching a human body which is still warm after death
### introduction ###
disgust is  in general  a negative experience which people seek to avoid or terminate  CITATION
however  humans live in a disgusting world
the air we breathe comes from the lungs of other people  the chairs we sit in were exposed to the buttocks of many others  our silverware was in the mouths of many others  the toilet seat we use in a public bathroom was touched by the bare buttocks of many unknown others  the money we use was handled by many other people  the air contains molecules vaporized from animal and human feces  most of the molecules in the water we drink were at one point or other part of urine and some once passed through the body of adolph hitler
yet  humans negotiate their daily activities without much concern about these disgusting entities
they do so  in the same way that they are not crippled by thoughts of their mortality  by keeping these concerns in the background  out of consciousness
this is accomplished in a number of ways   NUMBER 
direct denial  suppression of disgusting implications   NUMBER 
reframing  that is  thinking of potentially disgusting things in other ways   NUMBER 
adaptation  ceasing to think of many of the potential disgusts as disgusting
for example  to illustrate denial  most people  when exiting a public bathroom  do not think about the fact that the metal knob or handle on the door that they are opening has been touched by many other unknown people  some of whom no doubt did not wash their hands
if reminded of this  as when the undesirable person in front of them opened the door on the way out of the bathroom  people might take a paper towel to open the door
on the other hand  to illustrate adaptation  the mortician who is preparing his hundredth dead body for burial is certainly attending to it  but has ceased  presumably by adaptation  to be disgusted by it
finally  to illustrate reframing  one can reduce potential disgust about swimming in a public pool in which little children no doubt urinate while swimming  by noting that the ocean itself has a low level of urine in it  so that the swimming pool is just like a smaller instantiation of the ocean
individuals cope with many potential disgust elicitors encountered in a normal day such that they may experience disgust only a few times in a day
this problem seems most daunting for individuals whose professions bring them into contact with strong disgust elicitors repeatedly  morticians  sanitation workers  hospital orderlies  and surgeons  for example
it seems reasonable to suppose two different types of factors are at work in reducing disgust responses in such professions
first  individuals who are generally less disgust sensitive may be more likely to choose such professions
second  coping processes of denial  reframing  and adaptation may be presumed to be activated and to become habitual or prepotent
adaptation seems like the most likely candidate
in this study  we explore  NUMBER 
whether adaptation occurs as a result of extensive exposure to a particular class of disgust elicitors  NUMBER 
insofar as adaptation occurs  whether it is specific to the class of elicitors to which there was exposure
we examine these questions for the case of first year medical students who spend  NUMBER - NUMBER  months dissecting a cadaver
