Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31662082›Full record

ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2019

Explaining illness with evil: pathogen prevalence fosters moral vitalism.

Brock Bastian, Christin-Melanie Vauclair, Steve Loughnan, Paul Bain, Ashwini Ashokkumar, Maja Becker, Michał Bilewicz, Emma Collier-Baker, Carla Crespo, Paul W Eastwick and 23 more

Open access · bronzeAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
7citing papers in PubMed
4.7field-weighted citation impact, top 4% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed, 47 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Infection threat shapes our social instincts.Behavioral ecology and sociobiology · 2021
    Review
  6. Article
  7. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

33 authors at 20 institutions in 21 countries.

Brock BastianMelbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Christin-Melanie VauclairInstituto Universitario de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.
Steve LoughnanSchool of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
Paul BainDepartment of Psychology, University of Bath, Bath, Somerset, UK.
Ashwini AshokkumarDepartment of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
Maja BeckerCLLE, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UT2J, Toulouse, Midi-Pyrénées, France.
Michał BilewiczDepartment of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Warsaw, Warszawa, Poland.
Emma Collier-BakerSchool of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Carla CrespoFaculty of Psychology, University of Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal.
Paul W EastwickDepartment of Psychology, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
Ronald FischerSchool of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand.
Malte FrieseDepartment of Psychology, Saarland University, Saarbrucken, Saarland, Germany.
Ángel GómezDepartment of Social and Organizational Psychology, Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia, Madrid, Spain.
Valeschka M GuerraDepartment of Psychology, Universidade Federal do Espirito Santo, Vitoria, Brazil.
José Luis Castellanos GuevaraCancún, Quintana Roo México, ConSol Consultancy, Mexico.
Katja HankeUniversity of Applied Management Studies, Mannheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany.
Nic HooperHealth and Social Sciences, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK.
Li-Li HuangSchool of Economics and Management, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, Republic of China.
Shi JunqiLingnan College, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People's Republic of China.
Minoru KarasawaDepartment of Psychology, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan.
Peter KuppensFaculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Leuven, Leuven, Flanders, Belgium.
Siri LeknesDepartment of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
Müjde PekerDepartment of Psychology, MEF University, Istanbul, Turkey.
Cesar PelayUniversidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, Distrito Capital, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
Afroditi PinaSchool of Psychology, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, UK.
Marianna SachkovaRussian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Moskva, Russian Federation.
Tamar SaguyInterdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, Herzliya, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Mia Silfver-KuhalampiFaculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Florencia SortheixSwedish School of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Jennifer TongSchool of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University, Singapore, Singapore.
Victoria Wai-Lan YeungDepartment of Applied Psychology, Lingnan University, New Territories, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China.
Jacob DuffyMelbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
William B SwannDepartment of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
The University of Melbourne · AUThe University of Texas at Austin · USUniversity of Helsinki · FICentral University of Venezuela · VECentre National de la Recherche Scientifique · FRKU Leuven · BEMEF University · TRNagoya University · JPNational Tsing Hua University · TWReichman University · ILSaarland University · DESingapore Management University · SGThe Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration · RUThe University of Queensland · AUUniversidade Federal do Espírito Santo · BRUniversidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia · ESUniversity of Applied Management Studies · DEUniversity of Bath · GBUniversity of California, Davis · USUniversity of Edinburgh · GB

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Pathogens represent a significant threat to human health leading to the emergence of strategies designed to help manage their negative impact. We examined how spiritual beliefs developed to explain and predict the devastating effects of pathogens and spread of infectious disease. Analysis of existing data in studies 1 and 2 suggests that moral vitalism (beliefs about spiritual forces of evil) is higher in geographical regions characterized by historical higher levels of pathogens. Furthermore, drawing on a sample of 3140 participants from 28 countries in study 3, we found that historical higher levels of pathogens were associated with stronger endorsement of moral vitalistic beliefs. Furthermore, endorsement of moral vitalistic beliefs statistically mediated the previously reported relationship between pathogen prevalence and conservative ideologies, suggesting these beliefs reinforce behavioural strategies which function to prevent infection. We conclude that moral vitalism may be adaptive: by emphasizing concerns over contagion, it provided an explanatory model that enabled human groups to reduce rates of contagious disease.

Indexed as

Communicable DiseasesMoralsVitalismBiological EvolutionHumansPrevalenceReligiondiseasemoralitypathogensspiritual beliefvitalism

Identifiers

PMID31662082
PMCPMC6842846
OpenAlexW2982501355

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.