The evolution of disgust for pathogen detection and avoidance

AbstractThe behavioral immune system posits that disgust functions to protect animals from pathogen exposure. Therefore, cues of pathogen risk should be a primary driver influencing variation in disgust. Yet, to our knowledge, neither the relationship between current pathogen risk and disgust, nor the correlation between objective and perceived pathogen risk have been addressed using ecologically valid measures in a global sample. The current article reports two studies addressing these gaps. In Study 1, we include a global sample (n = 361) and tested the influence of both perceived pathogen exposure and an objective measure of pathogen risk—local communicable infectious disease mortality rates—on individual differences in pathogen and sexual disgust sensitivities. In Study 2, we first replicate Study 1’s analyses in another large sample (n = 821), targeting four countries (US, Italy, Brazil, and India); we then replaced objective and perceived pathogen risk with variables specific to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. In Study 1, both local infection mortality rates and perceived infection exposure predicted unique variance in pathogen and sexual disgust. In Study 2, we found that perceived infection exposure positively predicted sexual disgust, as predicted. When substituting perceived and objective SARS-CoV-2 risk in our models, perceived risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 positively predicted pathogen and sexual disgust, and state case rates negatively predicted pathogen disgust. Further, in both studies, objective measures of risk (i.e., local infection mortality and SARS-CoV-2 rates) positively correlated with subjective measures of risk (i.e., perceived infection exposure and perceived SARS-CoV-2 risk). Ultimately, these results provide two pieces of foundational evidence for the behavioral immune system: 1) perceptions of pathogen risk accurately assay local, objective mortality risk across countries, and 2) both perceived and objective pathogen risk explain variance in disgust levels.

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Visual Perception of Moisture Is a Pathogen Detection Mechanism of the Behavioral Immune System

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00170 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Kazunori Iwasa ◽

Takanori Komatsu ◽

Ayaka Kitamura ◽

Yuta Sakamoto

Keyword(s):

Immune System ◽

Visual Perception ◽

Pathogen Detection ◽

Detection Mechanism ◽

Behavioral Immune System

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Testing the Disgust-Based Mechanism of Homonegative Attitudes in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.647881 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Aleksandra Szymkow ◽

Natalia Frankowska ◽

Katarzyna Galasinska

Keyword(s):

System Theory ◽

Immune System ◽

Defense Mechanisms ◽

Negative Attitudes ◽

Perceived Vulnerability ◽

Behavioral Immune System ◽

Functional Flexibility ◽

Sexual Disgust ◽

Perceived Vulnerability To Disease

Negative attitudes and stigmatization can originate from the perception of a disease-related threat. Following the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is often suggested that incidents of discriminatory behavior are the result of defense mechanisms aimed at avoiding pathogens. According to the behavioral immune system theory, people are motivated to distance themselves from individuals who show signs of infection, or who are only heuristically associated with a disease, primarily because of the disgust they evoke. In this paper we focus on negative attitudes toward gay men and lesbians who are among social groups that have been persistently framed as “unclean.” In our correlational study (N = 500 heterosexual participants; Polish sample data collected during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Poland, in March/April 2020) we tested moderation models derived from the behavioral immune system theory. Specifically, we investigated whether perceived vulnerability to disease and perceived threat of contracting COVID-19 moderate the relation between disgust and homonegativity. We found that sexual disgust (but not pathogen nor moral disgust) predicted homonegative attitudes. This effect was stronger for participants expressing higher levels of perceived vulnerability to disease but was not dependent on the perception of the COVID-19 threat. The results reaffirm previous evidence indicating a pivotal role of disgust in disease-avoidance mechanisms. They also point to functional flexibility of the behavioral immune system by demonstrating the moderating role of perceived vulnerability to disease in shaping homonegative attitudes. Finally, they show that the threat of COVID-19 does not strengthen the relationship between disgust and homonegativity.

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Bacteremic sepsis leads to higher mortality when adjusting for confounders with propensity score matching

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-86346-4 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Lisa Mellhammar ◽

Fredrik Kahn ◽

Caroline Whitlow ◽

Thomas Kander ◽

Bertil Christensson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Intensive Care ◽

Clinical Review ◽

Pathogen Detection ◽

Mortality Rates ◽

Blood Cultures ◽

Population Heterogeneity ◽

Sepsis Diagnosis ◽

Culture Positive ◽

Culture Negative ◽

Microbial Samples

AbstractOne can falsely assume that it is well known that bacteremia is associated with higher mortality in sepsis. Only a handful of studies specifically focus on the comparison of culture-negative and culture-positive sepsis with different conclusions depending on study design. The aim of this study was to describe outcome for critically ill patients with either culture-positive or -negative sepsis in a clinical review. We also aimed to identify subphenotypes of sepsis with culture status included as candidate clinical variables. Out of 784 patients treated in intensive care with a sepsis diagnosis, blood cultures were missing in 140 excluded patients and 95 excluded patients did not fulfill a sepsis diagnosis. Of 549 included patients, 295 (54%) had bacteremia, 90 (16%) were non-bacteremic but with relevant pathogens detected and in 164 (30%) no relevant pathogen was detected. After adjusting for confounders, 90-day mortality was higher in bacteremic patients, 47%, than in non-bacteremic patients, 36%, p = 0.04. We identified 8 subphenotypes, with different mortality rates, where pathogen detection in microbial samples were important for subphenotype distinction and outcome. In conclusion, bacteremic patients had higher mortality than their non-bacteremic counter-parts and bacteremia is more common in sepsis when studied in a clinical review. For reducing population heterogeneity and improve the outcome of trials and treatment for sepsis, distinction of subphenotypes might be useful and pathogen detection an important factor.

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Behavioral Immune System: Its Psychological Bases and Functions

10.3389/978-2-88966-669-0 ◽

2021 ◽

Keyword(s):

Immune System ◽

Behavioral Immune System

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Behavioral immune system activity predicts downregulation of chronic basal inflammation

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0203961 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 13 (9) ◽

pp. e0203961 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Jeffrey Gassen ◽

Marjorie L. Prokosch ◽

Anastasia Makhanova ◽

Micah J. Eimerbrink ◽

Jordon D. White ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Immune System ◽

System Activity ◽

Behavioral Immune System

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PsychoBehavioroimmunology: Connecting the Behavioral Immune System to Its Physiological Foundations

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00200 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Damian R. Murray ◽

Marjorie L. Prokosch ◽

Zachary Airington

Keyword(s):

Immune System ◽

Behavioral Immune System

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The behavioral immune system is designed to avoid infected individuals, not outgroups

Evolution and Human Behavior ◽

10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2017.12.003 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 39 (2) ◽

pp. 226-234 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Florian van Leeuwen ◽

Michael Bang Petersen

Keyword(s):

Immune System ◽

Behavioral Immune System

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The Behavioral Immune System Shapes Political Intuitions: Why and How Individual Differences in Disgust Sensitivity Underlie Opposition to Immigration

American Political Science Review ◽

10.1017/s0003055416000770 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 111 (2) ◽

pp. 277-294 ◽

Cited By ~ 55

Author(s):

LENE AARØE ◽

MICHAEL BANG PETERSEN ◽

KEVIN ARCENEAUX

Keyword(s):

Immune System ◽

Emotional Processing ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

The United States ◽

Behavioral Immune System ◽

Psychological Mechanisms ◽

Nationally Representative ◽

First Time ◽

Representative Samples

We present, test, and extend a theoretical framework that connects disgust, a powerful basic human emotion, to political attitudes through psychological mechanisms designed to protect humans from disease. These mechanisms work outside of conscious awareness, and in modern environments, they can motivate individuals to avoid intergroup contact by opposing immigration. We report a meta-analysis of previous tests in the psychological sciences and conduct, for the first time, a series of tests in nationally representative samples collected in the United States and Denmark that integrate the role of disgust and the behavioral immune system into established models of emotional processing and political attitude formation. In doing so, we offer an explanation for why peaceful integration and interaction between ethnic majority and minorities is so hard to achieve.

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