A cognitive approach to the functioning of the disability models

Implicit social cognition is an empirical phenomenon encompassing the effects of experience on judgements and decisions. We evaluate whether the wide range of attitudes towards people with disabilities are attributable to universal and species-specific cognitive constraints. We propose that there is a link between an evolved mechanism of avoidance of disease and contemporary prejudices affecting people with physical disabilities. Using the Implicit Association Test and two questionnaires evaluating sensitivity to perceived disgust and vulnerability to disease, we found strong, implicit associations of the concept, “disability,” with “illness” and “unpleasantness” and a significant positive correlation between disgust and the implicit association between the attributes, “disability/unpleasantness.” The results provide evidence for a domain-specific cognitive mechanism underpinning the cultural construction of the medical model. In addition, the unpleasantness of disability seems grounded in the germs of aversion and the contamination of disgust.