Abstract
Although infectious disease has posed a significant and persistent threat to human survival and welfare throughout history, only recently have the psychological and behavioral implications of disease threat become a topic of research within the behavioral sciences. This growing body of work has revealed a suite of affective and cognitive processes that motivate the avoidance of disease-causing objects and situations—a cascade of processes loosely conceptualized as a “behavioral immune system (BIS).” Recent BIS research has linked disease threat to a surprisingly broad set of psychological and behavioral phenomena. However, research examining how the BIS is nested within our broader physiology is only beginning to emerge. Here, we review research that has begun to elucidate the physiological foundations of the BIS—at the levels of sensory modalities, cells, and genes. We also discuss the future of this work.
Highlights
Specialty section: This article was submitted to Evolutionary Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology
Infectious disease has posed a significant and persistent threat to human survival and welfare throughout history, only recently have the psychological and behavioral implications of disease threat become a topic of research within the behavioral sciences
This growing body of work has revealed a suite of affective and cognitive processes that motivate the avoidance of disease-causing objects and situations—a cascade of processes loosely conceptualized as a “behavioral immune system (BIS).”
Summary
Behavioral immune system research suggests that the social and behavioral implications of perceived disease threat range from basic perceptual processes (e.g., facial perception), to judgment and decision-making processes, to culture-wide norms and social systems (for reviews see Murray and Schaller, 2014, 2016, 2017). Each of these related lines of research are theoretically underpinned by a distinct conceptual hypothesis which considers the cost/benefit ratio of a given trait or behavior, and how this ratio is variable dependent upon the threat of disease (or perceived threat of disease) within one’s environment. Similar implicit cost/benefit logic has been employed to experimentally link disease threat to outgroup stereotyping and prejudice (Faulkner et al, 2004; Park et al, 2007; Huang et al, 2011), conformity (Murray and Schaller, 2012; Wu and Chang, 2012; Murray et al, 2019c), anticipated future sexual behavior (Hill et al, 2015), and self-image concern (Ackerman et al, 2018b)
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