Why is it when we see or hear something gross...we immediately lose our appetite? Is it simply association?

Answer:
Well for ME it's because I feel nauseous. Why would I want to eat when I feel like I'm gonna puke?

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i would say, yes indeed it is. Gosh, there was a time when i thought it would be a brilliant idea to videotape the kids in the nursery where i work picking and eating boogars. Then just watch the tape when i felt like eating! What a wonderfully effective dieting tool!! GROSS! sorry..

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Hmm.. it actually never appeal to me. I was tryin to think how ppl can lose appetite straight away wen they hear sumtin gross, etc.. while i still can eat without worryin bout it at all. But I remember my biology teacher thought me tat in some ppl, there is a hormone in our brain tat makes some ppl actually feel it first before it happens eg. if sum1 wanna tickle u, n if u got tat hormone too much/ sumtin, then even bfr sum1 tickle u, ur gettin ticklish first. its weird uh?
but tats science result. dun tink its juz simply association. hope tat helps

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I'm wondering that myself.maybe it's association, but i work in the medical profession, and I watch surgery on tv and I'm sitting there eating dinner. or it can depend on how gross it actually is.

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The truth is that not everybody does lose their appetites. A lot of how we may react is related to how significant others in our lives reacted at the time of our first exposure. Interestingly,we learned these things most often before the age of six. Health Care workers, police, mortuary personnel learn to bypass an emotionally based sympathetic response with an empathetic, more detached, reaction. In other words, you were conditioned to react the way you do. The good news is that when the reaction is undesirable, you can be deconditioned.

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I think it may be a learned social behavior. I too am in the medical profession but after working in the OR, doing wound care or seeing what I see every shift, it has no affect on my appetite. Go figure.

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