Sick Body, Vigilant Mind

Activation of the behavioral immune system has been shown to promote activation of the biological immune system. The current research tested the hypothesis that activation of the biological immune system (as a result of recent illness) promotes activation of the behavioral immune system. Participants who had recently been ill, and had therefore recently experienced activation of their biological immune system, displayed heightened attention to (Study 1) and avoidance of (Study 2) disfigured individuals—cognitive and behavioral processes reflecting activation of the behavioral immune system. These findings shed light on the interactive nature of biological and psychological mechanisms designed to help people overcome the threat of disease.

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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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An adaptive behavioral immune system: a model of population health behavior

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications ◽

10.1057/s41599-021-00759-0 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Julian M. Saad ◽

James O. Prochaska

Keyword(s):

Immune System ◽

General Population ◽

Health Behavior ◽

Behavior Change ◽

Population Health ◽

First Century ◽

Behavioral Immune System ◽

Biological Immune System ◽

Twenty First Century ◽

Disease Epidemics

AbstractThe understanding that immunity could be strengthened in the general population (e.g., through vaccine interventions) supported global advances upon acute infectious disease epidemics in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. However, in the twenty-first century, global populations face chronic disease epidemics. Research demonstrates that diseases largely emerge from health risk behavior. The understanding of how health behavior, like the biological immune system, can be strengthened in the general population, could support advances in the twenty-first century. To consider how health behavior can be strengthened in the general population, the authors present a theoretical model of population health behavior. The model operationalizes health behavior as a system of functions that, like the biological immune system, exists in each member of the population. Constructs are presented that operationalize the specific decisions and habits that drive health behavior and behavior change in the general population. The constructs allow the authors to present parallels (1) among existing behavior change theories and (2) between the proposed system and the biological immune system. Through these parallels, the authors introduce a model and a logic of population-level health behavior change. The Adaptive Behavioral Immune System is an integrative model of population health behavior.

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Preregistered replication of “Sick body, vigilant mind: The biological immune system activates the behavioral immune system”

10.31234/osf.io/m6ghr ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Joshua M. Tybur ◽

Benedict C Jones ◽

Lisa Marie DeBruine ◽

Joshua Ackerman ◽

Vanessa Fasolt

Keyword(s):

Immune System ◽

Original Study ◽

University Of Michigan ◽

Subsequent Infection ◽

Future Directions ◽

Behavioral Immune System ◽

System P ◽

Biological Immune System ◽

The University ◽

Pathogen Avoidance

The tendency to attend to and avoid cues to pathogens varies across individuals and contexts. Researchers have proposed that this variation is partially driven by immunological vulnerability to infection, though support for this hypothesis is equivocal. One key piece of evidence finds that recently ill participants – who may have a reduced ability to combat subsequent infection – allocate more attention to faces with infectious disease cues than do participants who have not recently been ill. The current manuscript reports a direct replication of this study using a sample of 402 individuals from the University of Michigan, the University of Glasgow, and VU Amsterdam – over four times the sample size of the original study. No effect of illness recency on attentional bias for disfigured faces emerged. Though not supporting the original finding, this replication provides suggestions for future directions for research on the psychological underpinnings of pathogen avoidance.

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The Role of Age and Gender in Perceived Vulnerability to Infectious Diseases

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph17020485 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (2) ◽

pp. 485 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Amelia Díaz ◽

Ángela Beleña ◽

Jesús Zueco

Keyword(s):

Immune System ◽

Age Groups ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Age And Gender ◽

Perceived Vulnerability ◽

Behavioral Immune System ◽

Biological Immune System ◽

And Gender ◽

Perceived Vulnerability To Disease ◽

System Variables

Background: The study of the immune system has been approached using two separate paths, the biological immune system and the behavioral immune system. Recently, Gangestad and Grebe proposed a unique integrated compensatory immune system, where both systems work together and one of them could compensate for the other when necessary. However, few studies have confirmed the existence of this integrated compensatory immune system. Our study represents an attempt to explore the existence of this unique immune system, investigating if the behavioral immune system variables increase when the biological immune system weakens with age. Material and Methods. The cross-sectional design study was made up of a final sample of 1108 participants (45.2% men and 54.2 women) aged 18–64 years. The younger group (18–21 years) was made up of students, whilst the older groups (22 to 64 years) were composed by their relatives and acquaintances, following the snow ball process. The participants completed the Perceived Vulnerability to Disease Questionnaire that assesses perceived infectability and germ aversion. Correlations, analyses of variance (ANOVAs), and independent group comparisons were performed. These analyses showed the relationships between the variables studied, the effects of age and gender in perceived infectability and germ aversion, and the differences that perceived infectability and germ aversion presented in different age-groups separated by gender. Results: A pattern emerged where germ aversion increases as both men and women get older, but perceived infectability decreases up to the age of 50, and then it increases in women from that age onward. Gender differences are only significant in younger participants, with women having higher scores than men in both variables. Conclusion: The results partially support the existence of a unique integrated compensatory biological/behavioral immune system.

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Preregistered Direct Replication of “Sick Body, Vigilant Mind: The Biological Immune System Activates the Behavioral Immune System”

Psychological Science ◽

10.1177/0956797620955209 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 31 (11) ◽

pp. 1461-1469 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Joshua M. Tybur ◽

Benedict C. Jones ◽

Lisa M. DeBruine ◽

Joshua M. Ackerman ◽

Vanessa Fasolt

Keyword(s):

Immune System ◽

Original Study ◽

Future Research ◽

University Of Michigan ◽

Subsequent Infection ◽

Behavioral Immune System ◽

Current Article ◽

Biological Immune System ◽

The University ◽

Pathogen Avoidance

The tendency to attend to and avoid cues to pathogens varies across individuals and contexts. Researchers have proposed that this variation is partially driven by immunological vulnerability to infection, though support for this hypothesis is equivocal. One key piece of evidence (Miller & Maner, 2011) shows that participants who have recently been ill—and hence may have a reduced ability to combat subsequent infection—allocate more attention to faces with infectious-disease cues than do participants who have not recently been ill. The current article describes a direct replication of this study using a sample of 402 individuals from the University of Michigan, the University of Glasgow, and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam—more than 4 times the sample size of the original study. No effect of illness recency on attentional bias for disfigured faces emerged. Though it did not support the original finding, this replication provides suggestions for future research on the psychological underpinnings of pathogen avoidance.

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Individual Differences in the Behavioral Immune System and the Emergence of Cultural Systems

Social Psychology ◽

10.1027/1864-9335/a000118 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 43 (4) ◽

pp. 174-184 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Russ Clay ◽

John A. Terrizzi ◽

Natalie J. Shook

Keyword(s):

Immune System ◽

Individual Differences ◽

Cultural Variation ◽

Behavioral Immune System ◽

Individual Level ◽

Domain Specific ◽

Psychological Mechanisms ◽

System A ◽

Cultural Systems ◽

Pathogen Prevalence

Cultural variation may be evoked through the interaction between domain-specific psychological mechanisms and environmental conditions (Gangestad, Haselton, & Buss, 2006 ). One such constellation of mechanisms is the behavioral immune system, a cluster of psychological processes evolved to promote disease-avoidance ( Schaller, 2006 ). Previous research demonstrated that higher levels of both historic and contemporary pathogen prevalence are predictive of collectivism across geopolitical regions ( Fincher, Thornhill, Murray, & Schaller, 2008 ). Across two studies, we demonstrate that individual differences in behavioral immune system reactivity (e.g., disgust sensitivity, germ aversion) are associated with variable endorsement of a vertical collectivist cultural orientation and differential value priorities, which are indicative of cultural differences. These findings provide support at an individual level for the proposition of evoked culture.

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Becoming a Crorepati: From Glocal TV Game to Grobal Fiction

Asiatische Studien – Études Asiatiques ◽

10.1515/asia-2019-0053 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 73 (3) ◽

pp. 497-520

Author(s):

Nicola Pozza

Keyword(s):

Effective Means ◽

The Novel ◽

Cultural Products ◽

Slumdog Millionaire ◽

Interactive Nature ◽

Tv Show ◽

Shed Light ◽

The Way

AbstractNumerous studies have dealt with the process of globalization and its various cultural products. Three such cultural products illustrate this process: Vikas Swarup’s novel Q and A (2005), the TV quiz show Kaun banega crorepati? (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?), and Danny Boyle’s film Slumdog Millionaire (2008). The novel, the TV show and the film have so far been studied separately. Juxtaposing and comparing Q and A, Kaun banega crorepati, and Slumdog Millionaire provides an effective means to shed light on the dialogic and interactive nature of the process of globalization. It is argued through this case study that an analysis of their place of production, language and content, helps clarify the derivative concepts of “glocalization” and “grobalization” with regard to the way(s) contemporary cultural products respond to globalization.

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Application of Immune Genetic Algorithm in Survey Data Processing

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.241-244.1737 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 241-244 ◽

pp. 1737-1740

Author(s):

Wei Chen

Keyword(s):

Genetic Algorithm ◽

Immune System ◽

Data Processing ◽

Survey Data ◽

Heuristic Algorithm ◽

Experimental Results ◽

Immune Genetic Algorithm ◽

Basic Principles ◽

Immune Operator ◽

Biological Immune System

The immune genetic algorithm is a kind of heuristic algorithm which simulates the biological immune system and introduces the genetic operator to its immune operator. Conquering the inherent defects of genetic algorithm that the convergence direction can not be easily controlled so as to result in the prematureness；it is characterized by a better global search and memory ability. The basic principles and solving steps of the immune genetic algorithm are briefly introduced in this paper. The immune genetic algorithm is applied to the survey data processing and experimental results show that this method can be practicably and effectively applied to the survey data processing.

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