The evolution of disgust for pathogen detection and avoidance

Abstract The 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...

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Autores principales:	Jessica K. Hlay, Graham Albert, Carlota Batres, George Richardson, Caitlyn Placek, Steven Arnocky, Debra Lieberman, Carolyn R. Hodges-Simeon
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/9bb38c0b2d38450894a7ced0145c4e64
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:9bb38c0b2d38450894a7ced0145c4e642021-12-02T18:18:51ZThe evolution of disgust for pathogen detection and avoidance10.1038/s41598-021-91712-32045-2322https://doaj.org/article/9bb38c0b2d38450894a7ced0145c4e642021-06-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-91712-3https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract The 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.Jessica K. HlayGraham AlbertCarlota BatresGeorge RichardsonCaitlyn PlacekSteven ArnockyDebra LiebermanCarolyn R. Hodges-SimeonNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-12 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Jessica K. Hlay Graham Albert Carlota Batres George Richardson Caitlyn Placek Steven Arnocky Debra Lieberman Carolyn R. Hodges-Simeon The evolution of disgust for pathogen detection and avoidance
description	Abstract The 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.
format	article
author	Jessica K. Hlay Graham Albert Carlota Batres George Richardson Caitlyn Placek Steven Arnocky Debra Lieberman Carolyn R. Hodges-Simeon
author_facet	Jessica K. Hlay Graham Albert Carlota Batres George Richardson Caitlyn Placek Steven Arnocky Debra Lieberman Carolyn R. Hodges-Simeon
author_sort	Jessica K. Hlay
title	The evolution of disgust for pathogen detection and avoidance
title_short	The evolution of disgust for pathogen detection and avoidance
title_full	The evolution of disgust for pathogen detection and avoidance
title_fullStr	The evolution of disgust for pathogen detection and avoidance
title_full_unstemmed	The evolution of disgust for pathogen detection and avoidance
title_sort	evolution of disgust for pathogen detection and avoidance
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/9bb38c0b2d38450894a7ced0145c4e64
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The evolution of disgust for pathogen detection and avoidance

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