Investigating Behaviour and Face Encoding in a Hypothetical Real-World Social Contract: Handwashing in Hazardous Health Settings

Fatima Felisberti ,Daniel Farrelly

doi:10.1007/s40806-016-0055-7

Fatima Felisberti , Daniel Farrelly

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40806-016-0055-7

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Abstract

Investigations into the evolutionary origins of human cognition has shown that individuals’ memory for others is influenced by the latter’s behaviour in social contracts. Such research is primarily based on hypothetical or more abstract forms of social contracts, whereas an application of this knowledge to everyday health behaviours can be of great value. To address this, the current study investigated whether participants who were asked to imagine themselves in a hypothetical hazardous health scenario showed differential response sensitivity (d’) and latency (RT) to faces of hospital staff tagged with contrasting hand hygiene before touching patients: clean hands, dirty hands, or unknown hand-washing behaviour (control). The test used a two alternative forced-choice (2AFC: “old/new”) face recognition paradigm. The findings showed that d’ to dirty and clean hands was similar, but higher than for controls. Moreover, d’ was not affected by the occupation of hospital staff (nurses vs porters). The absence of memory gains towards clean or dirty hands points to the need for new strategies to remind patients to observe (and remember) the hand hygiene of others when exposed to hazardous health environments.

Highlights

Investigations into the evolutionary origins of human cognition has shown that individuals’ memory for others is influenced by the latter’s behaviour in social contracts
There was no difference in d′ between staff with clean or dirty hands (p = 1.0), nor between clean hands and controls (p = 0.06)
A pairwise comparison revealed significant RT differences associated with staff occupation in general (p = 0.002), whereby participants were faster at recognizing faces of nurses than porters across all handwashing conditions. These findings offered only partial support for an enhanced memory of faces linked to lack of hygiene in health settings

Summary

Introduction

Investigations into the evolutionary origins of human cognition has shown that individuals’ memory for others is influenced by the latter’s behaviour in social contracts. The role of social exchange on the evolution of human cognition was explored by Cosmides and Tooby (1992), and as such is seen by many as being central to the founding principles of evolutionary psychology They point to the evolutionary benefits of engaging in social contracts with others, and the adaptations evident in our cognitive processes that ensure their successful running. Cosmides and Tooby (1992) suggest that an ability to detect cheats in social contracts is an evolved mental module, and they famously point to heightened performance on the Wason selection task (Wason 1966) for social contract versions over abstract versions as evidence of this (Cosmides 1989). Certain social exchanges can greatly influence an individual’s health or wellbeing, so an understanding of reasoning and cognition here can be very informative and be used as the basis of real world interventions that can benefit the general public

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