Word Aversion: Why people dislike moist more than moose, but not as much as merts

Moist is a common example of a word that triggers aversion or disgust responses in many people. Word aversion presents a novel opportunity to empirically study the link between linguistic features (phonology, semantics) and emotional response. In the present study, we (1) determine the prevalence and extent of aversions to specific words in a large cohort, (2) examine phonological predictors of emotional response in word aversion, and (3) test the effect of phonological-emotional mapping on processing in an object-labeling paradigm. Across 244 participants, individuals tended to rate a subset of commonly self-reported aversive words (e.g. slacks) as more aversive than matched control words. However, participants reported even stronger aversions to nonsense words, suggesting that familiarity may moderate the experience of word aversion. Results also suggest that word-averse individuals make associations between phonology and meaning more readily.