ReviewTrends in cognitive sciences2021
What Role Does Pathogen-Avoidance Psychology Play in Pandemics?
Review in Trends in cognitive sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers.
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed.
- Effects of Spicy Food on Sense of Fairness: Mediating Effects of Aggression and Pathogen Avoidance.PsyCh journal · 2025Article
- Taking Stock and Looking Forward to the Future of Pathogen Politics in Light of New Insights and Recommendations: COVID-19 Threat Was Meaningfully Associated With Support for Liberal Policies in the United States.Personality & social psychology bulletin · 2025Article
- The uncanny valley effect and immune activation in virtual reality.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Political Attitudes and Disease Threat: Regional Pathogen Stress Is Associated With Conservative Ideology Only for Older Individuals.Personality & social psychology bulletin · 2024Article
- The Relationship between Cyberchondria and Health Anxiety and the Moderating Role of Health Literacy among the Pakistani Public.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- Italian validation of the body odor disgust scale.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2024Article
- Article
- Salience of infectious diseases did not increase xenophobia during the COVID-19 pandemic.Evolutionary human sciences · 2024Article
- Exploring changes in violence across two waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in Richmond, VA.Aggressive behavior · 2023Article
- Awareness, Attitude, and Knowledge Among the Healthcare Workers in China at the Onset of the Oversea Monkeypox Outbreak.Journal of general internal medicine · 2023Article
- COVID-19 vaccination and the behavioral immune system: The newcomer and the old friend get along in preventing infection.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2023Article
- Coronavirus-Related Searches on the Internet Predict COVID-19 Vaccination Rates in the Real World: A Behavioral Immune System Perspective.Social psychological and personality science · 2023Article
- Pandemic elevates sensitivity to moral disgust but not pathogen disgust.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Family support during childhood as a predictor of mate retention and kin care in adults during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil: an exploratory study.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Does the threat of COVID-19 modulate automatic imitation?PloS one · 2023Article
- Disgust sensitivity in early pregnancy as a response to high pathogen risk.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Pandemic threat and authoritarian attitudes in Europe: An empirical analysis of the exposure to COVID-19.European Union politics · 2022Article
- The behavioral immune system in action: Psychological correlates of pathogen disgust sensitivity in healthcare professionals working in a COVID-19 hospital.Physiology & behavior · 2022Article
- Helping While Social Distancing: Pathogen Avoidance Motives Influence People's Helping Intentions during the COVID-19 Pandemic.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Fear of Infection and the Common Good: COVID-19 and the First Italian Lockdown.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
A substantial body of research has illuminated psychological adaptations motivating pathogen avoidance, mechanisms collectively known as the behavioral immune system. Can knowledge about these mechanisms inform how people respond to widespread disease outbreaks, such as the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) [coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)] pandemic? We review evidence suggesting that the evolutionary history of the behavioral immune system, and the cues that activate it, are distinct in many ways from modern human experiences with pandemics. Moreover, the behaviors engaged by this system may have limited utility for combating pandemic diseases like COVID-19. A better understanding of the points of distinction and points of overlap between our evolved pathogen-avoidance psychology and responses to pandemics may help us realize a more precise and intervention-ready science.
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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.