The Parasite-Stress Theory of Values and Sociality: Infectious Disease, History and Human Values Worldwide
Abstract
This book develops and tests an ecological and evolutionary theory of the causes of human values-the core beliefs that guide people's cognition and behavior-and their variation across time and space around the world. We call this theory the parasite-stress theory of values or the parasite-stress theory of sociality. The evidence we present in our book indicates that both a wide span of human affairs and major aspects of human cultural diversity can be understood in light of variable parasite (infectious disease) stress and the range of value systems evoked by variable parasite stress. The same evidence supports the hypothesis that people have psychological adaptations that function to adopt values dependent upon local infectious-disease adversity. The authors have identified key variables, variation in infectious disease adversity and in the core values it evokes, for understanding these topics and in novel and encompassing ways. Although the human species is the focus in the book, evidence presented in the book shows that the parasite-stress theory of sociality informs other topics in ecology and evolutionary biology such as variable family organization and speciation processes and biological diversity in general in non-human animals. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014. All rights are reserved.
Chapters (14)
The particularistic method of cultural analysis relies on a region’s specific cultural history to explain why the region’s culture is the way it is. The particularistic method assumes incorrectly the popular view that culture is passively accepted by future generations. A very different perspective on culture sees people as evolved cultural strategists who accept, reject, and modify values and other cultural items using psychological adaptation that is functionally designed for this purpose. The empirical findings throughout our book strongly support the strategic perspective on enculturation. We hypothesize that the particularistic interpretation of enculturation derives from a value system that prioritizes tradition and interdependent self-concept—i.e., the value system of collectivism/conservatism. We introduce the parasite-stress theory of values/sociality, which is the general theory used throughout the book to analyze enculturation, cultural diversity and sociality, and to unify in shared proximate and evolutionary causation the wide range of topics treated in the book. According to this theory, the level of infectious-disease stress in a region causes people’s values—low parasite stress evokes liberalism/individualism and high parasite stress evokes conservatism/collectivism. Although scientific discoveries about values cannot identify moral or immoral activity, they may allow achievement of whatever moral goals are identified by people. The book’s empirical findings, discovered by applying the parasite-stress theory of values, indicate that democratic or equalitarian values can be promoted by reducing infectious disease in a region, whereas undemocratic values can be promoted by increasing infectious disease. Brief overviews of the subsequent 13 chapters of the book are provided.
We treat the scientific procedures and assumptions used throughout the book. The scholarly study of aesthetic judgments, including those about the attractiveness/unattractiveness of values, initially arose as a branch of philosophy. We criticize the philosophical method as a way of knowing the causes of values. The scientific method, developed in part by Francis Bacon, replaced the philosophical method and then became, and remains, the sole way of knowing the causes of natural things, including the causes of morals or values. Darwin’s method of historical science importantly extended the scientific method to causes in the deep-time past. We also treat the fundamentals common to all scientific investigation. Additionally, we discuss the salience of individual-level selection in causing evolution, including in the creation of all adaptations of social life. Moreover, we distinguish proximate and ultimate (evolutionary) causation and elaborate on the topic of enculturation that was introduced in Chap. 1. We discuss and resolve misunderstandings of comparative methodology, which is the method we emphasize throughout in testing hypotheses across regions. Lastly, we comment on ideological criticisms of evolutionary theory applied to human affairs.
The parasite-stress theory of values/sociality is presented in detail. Humans have two immune systems: the classical physiological, cellular, and tissue-based defense system and the behavioral immune system. Only recently has the latter been investigated in detail; it is comprised of two parts: (a) psychology and behavior for infectious-disease avoidance and (b) psychology and behavior for managing the fitness-reducing effects of parasitic infection. In this book, our focus is on the behavioral immune system. This immune system is comprised of the adaptations of philopatry, xenophobia, and ethnocentrism, which are the basic features of assortative sociality. In subsequent chapters, we show that the components of assortative sociality/behavioral immunity increase with increasing parasite stress across regions, as predicted by the parasite-stress theory of values. The three components of assortative sociality—limited dispersal, ethnocentrism, and xenophobia—also fractionate cultures and thereby contribute to the genesis of new cultures. Thus, the parasite-stress theory includes a hypothesis about the origin of cultural or ethnic diversity. The parasite-stress theory of sociality also includes an important engine of speciation. In Chap. 13, we present empirical support for the ethnogenesis and speciation aspects of the parasite-stress theory of sociality. The early published research findings inspired by the parasite-stress theory of sociality are reviewed briefly. This theory has produced numerous new discoveries and new interpretations of previously described findings.
The large scientific literature on human values produced prior to the recent publication of the parasite-stress theory of values is reviewed and analyzed. The major causal frameworks in that literature—climate and wealth—are not alternatives to the parasite stress of values—they are complementary, proximate causes of values. The parasite-stress theory of values is a synthetic theory of values encompassing both proximate and evolutionary causation of values. Traditional research effort in the investigation of values has focused on the unidimensional value system of collectivism–individualism because of its ability to capture differences in values across regions. The values that correlate with collectivism and individualism are reviewed. The great similarity of the values dimension of collectivism–individualism to the values dimension of conservatism–liberalism is documented. Additional studies are discussed that reported differences between conservatives and liberals, but did not measure collectivism–individualism per se. These additional studies also support the high correspondence between collectivism–individualism and conservatism–liberalism. Conservative/collectivist values and liberal/individualist values differ in many ways that correspond to differences in authoritarianism, social prejudices, equalitarianism, social hierarchy, self-concept, reasoning style, linguistic behavior, personality, religiosity, the structure of social networks, in-group and out-group transactions, economics, governmental systems, dispersal, family relationships, violence, warfare, adherence to tradition, norm adherence, honor ideology, sexual behavior, and marriage. According to the parasite-stress theory of values, the form that each of these features takes in a region is caused proximately by the region’s level of parasite adversity and associated evoked values.
As predicted by the parasite-stress theory of values, variation in parasite stress correlated with collectivism–individualism across nations, USA states, and indigenous societies. In regions with high adversity of infectious diseases, human cultures are characterized by high collectivism, whereas in regions of low parasite stress cultures are highly individualistic. The prediction from the parasite-stress theory of values that infectious disease transmissible among humans (nonzoonotics) will be more important in predicting collectivism–individualism than those that humans can contract only from nonhuman animals (zoonotics) was supported. Evidence in human movement patterns for nations, states of the USA, and indigenous societies supports the hypothesis that the absence of dispersal (high philopatry) is a defense against contact with novel parasites in out-groups and their habitats. We show that human cultures with high degrees of collectivism have high degrees of cooperative breeding, and propose that the parasite-stress theory of sociality offers a general theory of family structure across humans as well as nonhuman animal taxa. We propose that a major context for the evolution of human reciprocity was in gaining benefits from out-group interactions during periods of relatively low disease threat. The parasite-stress theory of values offers a novel perspective to explain the evolution of reciprocity and human unique cognitive abilities. The parasite-stress theory suggests useful new research directions for the study of the demographic transition, patriotism, xenophobia, ethnocentrism, and moral foundations theory. We include discussion of ecological correlations and the ecological fallacy. The fact that all scientific findings are correlational is explained.
The parasite theory of sexual selection, originated by Hamilton and Zuk in 1982, is a subcategory of the more general and encompassing parasite-stress theory of sociality. Across indigenous societies, parasite-stress is correlated positively with the degree of polygyny. This is expected because high parasite stress generates high variation in the phenotypic and genetic quality of men, which then makes polygynous marriage adaptive for women, even though they must share a husband’s resources with harem wives. Research shows that, as parasite stress increases or as a person’s concern about infectious diseases increases, so does the value of obtaining a physically attractive mate (high genetic quality defends against parasites); evidence suggests that the importance of having such a mate is correlated positively with conservatism across cultures and people. Parasite stress predicts positively women’s sexual restrictiveness across countries. Cross-national evidence indicates that women’s sexual liberation from traditional values of sexual restriction is a component of overall liberalization of values. As predicted by the parasite-stress theory of values, as parasite adversity increases across regions, people engage in increased marital inbreeding, both cross-nationally and across indigenous cultures. Men’s xenophobia toward out-group men is mediated by concern about contracting novel parasites as well as by viewing out-group men as sexual competitors. As predicted by the parasite-stress theory of values, the practice of lynching black men engaged in by white racists is related positively to parasite stress and collectivism across US states. Research indicates sophisticated functional design of men’s sexual disgust. Like other kinds of disgust, sexual disgust functions, at least in part, to protect against contagion risk but is moderated when men’s mating opportunities arise.
Evidence across countries indicates that as parasite stress increases, so does introversion and closed-mindedness to new experiences. Also, the number of nonzoonotic human infectious diseases predicted significantly cross-national differences in the personality traits; the number of zoonotic parasitic diseases did so only marginally at best. A follow-up study, presented for the first time in our book and involving nonzoonotic versus zoonotic disease severity (rather than disease number), provided results similar to those based on number of diseases. Thus, cross-national variation in the personality dimensions appears to be attributable almost entirely to the adversity of nonzoonotic diseases, as expected from the parasite-stress theory of values. Other evidence shows that when people were primed with stimuli simulating a contagion threat, they shifted immediately toward an avoidance of interaction with people: they were less agreeable, less open to experience, less extraverted, and reacted with avoidant arm movements to strangers. Other research has shown that people’s classical immune system is activated by the parasite-salient cues that cause shifts in personality. Many important aspects of personality are features of the behavioral immune system. Future research in human personality will benefit from consideration of the parasite-stress theory of values and its relationship to each of the big five personality factors. Future research in personalities of nonhuman animals may benefit from studying the personality traits as traits of behavioral immunity. The research overall indicates that the parasite-stress theory of sociality may provide a new and general theory of personality.
The parasite-stress theory of values offers new perspectives and research directions for the study of interpersonal violence, and provides a theoretical and empirically synthetic foundation that promises to be more encompassing than those used by previous interpersonal-violence researchers. Evidence indicates that parasite stress may be the strongest predictor of rates of interpersonal violence to date. We argue that collectivist values evoked by high parasite stress account for the culture of honor and cause adult-on-adult interpersonal violence. Across the US states, parasite stress and collectivism each positively predict rates of men’s and women’s slaying of a romantic partner, as well as the rate of male-honor homicide and of felony-related homicide. Parasite stress and collectivism also positively predict international rates of overall homicide. Child maltreatment by caretakers is caused, in part, by divestment in offspring of low phenotypic quality, and high parasite stress produces more such offspring than low parasite stress. Rates of child maltreatment across the US states are predicted positively by parasite stress. Infectious diseases that can be transmitted human-to-human (nonzoonotic diseases) are stronger predictors of interpersonal violence than are zoonotic human diseases. The parasite-stress theory of values may be useful in reducing rates of interpersonal violence across the world and informs the other major category of violence, intergroup violence, or warfare (see Chap. 12).
Researchers have studied extensively regional variation in religious commitment and participation (religiosity). Such research, whether based on economic theory or evolutionary theory, emphasizes the high costs to individuals of religiosity. We have offered a new hypothesis of religiosity based on the parasite-stress theory of values. It relies on the theory of honest signaling in biology. We propose that religiosity is one important way that people engage in and display their in-group allegiance and boundary in order to avoid and manage infectious disease threats. In support of this, we provide evidence that religiosity is an aspect of in-group assortative sociality—and therefore an aspect of the behavioral immune system—and that religiosity correlates positively with parasite adversity, both cross-nationally and across states of the USA. We suggest additional tests of the parasite-stress theory’s application to religiosity. Other hypotheses of religiosity in the literature are evaluated. The parasite-stress theory of values appears to best account for religiosity and its diversity across regions. Our findings on religiosity have implications for a multitude of other areas of research such as secularization, health, ontogeny of religious values, life history, and geographical expansions of religion.
The countries of the world vary in their position along the autocracy–democracy continuum of governance. We hypothesize that the variation in values pertaining to the autocracy–democracy dimension arises fundamentally out of human species-typical psychological adaptation that manifests contingently, producing values and associated behaviors that functioned adaptively in human evolutionary history to cope with local levels of infectious diseases. We test this parasite-stress hypothesis of democratization using data measuring democratization, collectivism–individualism, gender egalitarianism, property rights, sexual restrictiveness, and parasite adversity across many countries of the world. We show that, as the hypothesis predicts, collectivism (hence, conservatism), autocracy, women’s subordination relative to men’s status, and women’s sexual restrictiveness are features that positively covary, and correspond with high prevalence of infectious disease. The psychology of xenophobia, ethnocentrism, traditionalism, and authoritarianism links these features to avoidance and management of parasites. Also as predicted, we show that the antipoles of each of the above features—individualism (hence, liberalism), democracy, anti-authoritarianism, and women’s rights, freedom and increased participation in casual sex—are a positively covarying set of features in countries with relatively low parasite stress. We discuss evidence that the generation and diffusion of innovations (in thought, action, and technology), which is an important component of democratization, is causally related to low parasite stress and its evoked values, particularly liberalism and associated openness. Other evidence supporting the parasite-stress hypothesis of democratization is discussed: the geographical location of the earliest democratic governments, patterns of censorship and transparency in the media across nations, patterns of autocracy across indigenous societies, and physical-attractiveness prejudices of voters across US congressional districts.
The parasite‐stress hypothesis of economics proposes that variation in infectious disease across regions causes variation in economic productivity by three proximate causes. (1) Infectious diseases cause morbidity, reducing people’s capability to produce. (2) Parasite stress evokes people’s values, which, in turn, cause regional economic parameters. For example, as parasite stress increases, regions become increasingly collectivistic. Collectivism causes parochial economics, political corruption, autocratic governance, and reduced innovativeness and diffusion of innovations. These effects stifle economic productivity of a region. In contrast, individualism causes willingness to transact with a diversity of people, creating broad economies and interregional sharing of ideas and products, increased innovativeness, governmental transparency, and democracy. These effects promote economic prosperity and equality. (3) Infectious disease limits cognitive ability, which reduces innovativeness and thus economic well-being in a region. Evidence supporting this framework is both diverse and copious. We discuss the established negative relationships between two important economic indicators, GDP per capita and Gini, and parasite stress and collectivism across the countries of the world. Studies also have confirmed the negative relationship between the diffusion of various innovations and parasite stress and collectivism across countries and US states. Evidence shows that even the routine purchases of people at supermarkets are consistent with the parasite-stress theory of values. We also discuss research indicating that parasite-stress variation across the globe affected wealth of regions as far back as 1500 ad. Cognitive ability is correlated negatively with parasite stress and collectivism both across countries and US states.
This chapter documents the applicability of the parasite-stress theory of values to the frequencies of occurrences of the major types of within-nation intergroup conflict across contemporary countries: civil wars, non-state wars (intrastate wars in which warring groups do not include the government of the state), and coups and revolutions. Collectivist values of people promote interdependence with, and loyalty toward, in-group members (ethnocentrism) and goals, and antagonism toward out-group members (xenophobia) and goals. Host–parasite antagonistic coevolutionary races produce variation among regions in the specificity of immune defenses and of parasites. According to the parasite-stress theory, the collectivist values of ethnocentrism and xenophobia are defenses against novel infectious diseases harbored in out-groups and to which local people are not adapted. From this, we proposed that high parasite stresses and associated collectivist values, then, promote all the major types of within-region civil conflict. As predicted, based on this, the frequency of civil wars, non-state wars, and coups and revolutions are associated positively with parasite stress and collectivism across countries of the world; peacefulness shows the predicted negative relationships with parasite stress and collectivism. These findings indicate that occurrences of civil conflicts would be reduced by reducing parasite stress and associated collectivist values. The parasite-stress theory of values provides a general causal model of intergroup conflict. The American Civil War is revisited in light of this general model. We provide evidence, too, that the parasite-stress theory of values applies to coalitional conflict characteristic of team sports.
The parasite-stress theory of sociality includes a theory of biodiversity: the parasite-driven-wedge model. Regionally localized coevolutionary races between parasites and their hosts result in three anti-parasite behaviors: preference for in-group affiliation and interaction, out-group avoidance (xenophobia), and philopatry. These three behaviors of behavioral immunity become linked within individuals through genetic linkage disequilibrium. In the case of human cultural behavioral immunity, within-individual linkage of behavioral immunity traits results in what we refer to as cultural linkage disequilibrium. Linkage by either process also includes linkage with genetic immunity to local parasites. These linked traits are mutually reinforcing in that as any one increases in frequency due to its adaptiveness, the others do as well. Also, preference for in-group members with behavioral-immunity values and behavior is self-reinforcing, because the in-group members preferred and favored have the same preference. These events create a wedge that gives rise to intergroup boundaries that effectively fractionate, locally isolate, and diversify the original range of a culture or a species, leading to the genesis of two or more discrete groups from one. The higher the parasite stress in a region, the greater the frequency and intensity of these processes of biodiversity genesis. The parasite-driven-wedge model, then, provides a parapatric (side-by-side) diversification mechanism that we propose accounts for the high diversity of species and cultures in geographical regions of high parasite adversity. Parasite-driven divergence may lead to sympatric speciation, especially at low latitudes, and account for distinct sympatric classes of caste social systems.
The overall goal of our book is to create a synthesis or unity, based on the parasite-stress theory of values/sociality, of many topics that traditionally have been viewed and studied as distinct. The book presents the utility of the parasite-stress theory for unification of areas of research and knowledge ranging from parasitology, immunology, moral systems, civil conflict, governmental systems, family life, sexual behavior, dispersal patterns, personality, economics, violence, religious commitment, biodiversity, and so on. The book supports the claim of the scientific revolution that the realm of explanation is small—diverse and seemingly unconnected parts of nature can be unified by a few shared and basic causes. We hypothesize that emancipation of people from infectious diseases not only will reduce mortality and morbidity and increase liberalism and associated egalitarianism, but also will increase the frequency of scientifically encompassing ideas. We address the societal benefits and costs of emancipating people from infectious diseases. Costs are increased autoimmune disease associated with evolutionarily novel low levels of infectious, commensal and mutualistic organisms encountered by children during their development and the exhaustion of nonrenewable energy for the future coinciding with technological and economic productivity. We respond to a range of criticisms of the parasite-stress theory of values or its claimed empirical support. We conclude that the criticisms to date do not falsify the theory, moderate its application to any of the topics it purports to explain, or question the empirical support of the theory. Numerous future research directions and associated hypotheses are presented.
... A theory to address this gap and which we draw on in this study is the Parasite Stress Theory of Values (e.g., Thornhill & Fincher, 2014). Generally, this theory assumes that the physiological and psychological immune systems can be mobilized to fight infectious diseases. ...
... By addressing these questions, we contribute to the organizational resilience literature (Duchek, 2020;Hillmann, 2021;Hillmann & Guenther, 2021;Linnenluecke, 2017;Williams et al., 2017) by being among the first to identify the conditions under which digitalization can make firms resilient to pandemic crises. Moreover, our study adds to the development of the Parasite Stress Theory of Values (Bennett & Nikolaev, 2020;Thornhill & Fincher, 2014) by introducing the notion that measures that can maintain business contacts despite social distancing in times of pandemic crisis (e.g., digital technologies) can help mitigate the detrimental economic impact of such crises, at least in certain contexts (e.g., high levels of globalization and non-family ownership). ...
... As indicated above and motivated by the Parasite Stress Theory of Values, Bennett and Nikolaev (2020) showed that countries with high personal and economic exposure to the Spanish flu in the early 20 th century are less innovative today. Given this theory's focus on developing resilience against infectious diseases (Thornhill & Fincher, 2014), it fits our pandemic crisiscontext well and we detail the theory's main tenets next. ...
While stressing the relevance of context, the organizational resilience literature has so far not extensively examined resilience in times of healthcare crises such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Parasite Stress Theory of Values suggests that such pandemic crises have detrimental impacts on entrepreneurial activity due to social distancing and its effects on interaction, collaboration, and innovation. However, alternatives to personal contact now available thanks to digitalization, have not yet been examined. We expect entrepreneurial firms with more digitalized business models to show higher resilience to pandemic crises, especially those highly affected by globalization and more for non-family businesses than for family businesses. Based on a survey of German Mittelstand firms in the midst of the crisis induced by COVID-19, our findings broadly support our expectations and thus help qualify the Parasite Stress Theory of Values and contribute to a better understanding of organizational resilience in times of pandemic crises.
... Evolutionary psychologists have labelled this phenomenon as assortative sociality, which explains the simultaneous banding together with known groups and turning away from strangers as a behavioural immunity defence system response (Fincher & Thornhill, 2012;Thornhill & Fincher, 2014). Assortative sociality is activated by contagion threat (or parasite stress) and subsequently leads to distinct shifts in personality and social attitudes towards strangers . ...
... To introduce the concept of assortative sociality to tourism, we first need to understand the parasite-stress theory of sociality, which was developed by evolutionary psychologists and human ecologists (Fincher & Thornhill, 2012;Thornhill & Fincher, 2014). It also has been corroborated in several cultural and empirical contexts (Uskul, 2012), including religious groups (Fincher & Thornhill, 2012), authoritarian regimes (Thornhill et al., 2009) and even tourism . ...
... This change is observable through the so-called assortative sociality, which denotes evolutionally developed behaviour towards in-and outgroup members. Assortative sociality manifests itself in three adaptive preferences or tactics: philopatry, xenophobia, and ethnocentrismeach aiming to avoid novel pathogens from the external world and containing local infections (Thornhill & Fincher, 2014). ...
This study introduces the evolutionary concept of assortative sociality and explores how it moderates pandemic anxiety effects on attitudes towards tourism and travel decisions. Based on a large-scale online survey (N = 4630) conducted in three European countries, we demonstrate that COVID-19 anxiety triggered assortative sociality, which reflects both xenophobic and ethnocentric traits. This changes perceptions of domestic and international travel attractiveness, and further leads to travel choices prioritizing domestic destinations. At the same time, xenophobic and ethnocentric traits also affected citizen attitudes towards supporting the domestic tourism industry ‒ an industry that accommodates foreigners. In conclusion, the paper discusses the seemingly paradoxical effects of a pandemic threat on domestic versus international tourism.
... We want to find out whether exposure to the Covid-19 pandemic threat is reflected in our understanding of national belonging. To evaluate the impact of exposure to the threat posed by the Covid-19 pandemic on conceptions of nationhood, we refer to the behavioural immune system (BIS) hypothesis, also known as the parasite stress theory (Murray & Schaller, 2016;Thornhill & Fincher, 2014). The behavioural immune system hypothesis links the prevalence of disease-causing parasites to an increased avoidance of unfamiliar out-group targets and to a strengthened cohesion with close in-group targets in order to inhibit contact with pathogens (Ackerman et al., 2018, p. 3). 2 By focusing on how boundaries between the in-group and out-group(s) are drawn, we study conceptions of nationhood as a major embodiment of group membership across the globe (Ariely, 2018;Greenfeld & Eastwood, 2007;Schatz et al., 1999). ...
... First, in the absence of realworld data from global pandemics, direct measurements of health threat exposure by infections are missing. In order to map pathogen exposure, previous studies have focused on the experimental design of (artificially) constructed health threats, exposure to disgust experiences, the creation of macrolevel indices of pandemic exposure based on parasite presence in a society or fatalities caused by infectious diseases (Albertson & Gadarian, 2015;Faulkner et al., 2004;Murray & Schaller, 2016;Thornhill & Fincher, 2014Tybur et al., 2014). Consequently, our approach of directly operationalizing Covid-19 exposure puts pandemic threat as such into focus and, for the first time, makes it possible to evaluate how direct perceptions of threat from an infectious disease on a global scale affect definitions of group membership, particularly conceptions of nationhood. ...
... Preventing contagion with infectious diseases like Covid-19 and coping with the consequences in case of an infection have been major drivers of human attitudes and behaviour since ancestral times (Brown et al., 2016;Faulkner et al., 2004;Gilles et al., 2013;Murray & Schaller, 2016;Navarrete & Fessler, 2006;Thornhill & Fincher, 2014). Biological sciences as well as evolutionary psychology demonstrate that the prevalence of infectious diseases and related parasites has led to the development of not only the classical immune system but also of a behavioural one as 'a motivational system […] inhibiting contact with disease-causing parasites' (Murray & Schaller, 2016, p. 76; see also Ackerman et al., 2018). ...
Drawing on the behavioral immune system hypothesis, we argue that the prevalence of the Covid‐19 pandemic threat in an individual's respective environment relates to exclusive, ethnic conceptions of nationhood. Referring to the affective intelligence theory, we maintain that specific negative emotions are prompted by the perception of being exposed to a pandemic threat, and these emotional states in turn structure political preferences regarding national belonging. Using an original survey in six European countries during the first peak of the pandemic in late April and early May 2020, we analyze both the impact of individual Covid‐19 experiences and the contextual exposure to a pandemic threat through hierarchical analyses of 105 European regions. Our empirical analysis shows that exposure to the pandemic is linked to stronger ethnic national identities for both levels of analysis. We also find that anger substantially mediates this relationship and has primacy over feelings of fear. Taken together, our results indicate that the behavioral immune system appears as a pervasive obstacle to inclusive orientations. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
... The threat of becoming infected may engender a sense of vulnerability or weakness, and heighten people's felt dependency on others for safety and support. Affiliation offers protection against threats to safety and necessary aid during times of illness (Baumeister & Leary, 1995;Thornhill & Fincher, 2014b). Hence, physical threats and fear motivate people to seek interpersonal closeness (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2009;Schachter, 1959;Strümpfer, 1970). ...
... Reminders about death have similar effects, increasing motivation to maintain close relationships (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2009). According to Thornhill and Fincher's (2014b) parasite stress theory, collectivistic values emphasizing the importance of interpersonal and in-group ties provide protection against contracting potentially lethal diseases, and so people living in regions characterized by high pathogen prevalence endorse these collectivistic values (see also Chiao & Blizinsky, 2010). Similarly, at the individual level, perceived vulnerability to disease is associated with greater conformity, an indicator of collectivistic values (Wu & Chang, 2012). ...
... Similarly, at the individual level, perceived vulnerability to disease is associated with greater conformity, an indicator of collectivistic values (Wu & Chang, 2012). The threat of contagion may also reduce the appeal of exploring the environment and pursuing new opportunities, as these activities may expose people to pathogens (Thornhill & Fincher, 2014b). Hence, during a disease outbreak, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the threat of personal contagion may be associated with a prioritization of communal values over agentic values. ...
The current research examined the role of values in guiding people’s responses to COVID-19. Results from an international study involving 115 countries (N = 61,490) suggest that health and economic threats of COVID-19 evoke different values, with implications for controlling and coping with the pandemic. Specifically, health threats predicted prioritization of communal values related to caring for others and belonging, whereas economic threats predicted prioritization of agentic values focused on competition and achievement. Concurrently and over time, prioritizing communal values over agentic values was associated with enactment of prevention behaviors that reduce virus transmission, motivations to help others suffering from the pandemic, and positive attitudes toward outgroup members. These results, which were generally consistent across individual and national levels of analysis, suggest that COVID-19 threats may indirectly shape important responses to the pandemic through their influence on people’s prioritization of communion and agency. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
... Cao et al. (2020) have essentially investigated Covid-19 morbidity and mortality during a 30-day period. Furthermore, although these studies offer useful findings for future research, their predominantly empirical and exploratory focus seem not to benefit sufficiently from prior literature on how culture seems to impact infectious diseases' spread (e.g., Betsch et al., 2017;Borg et al., 2012;Ji et al., 2004;Matsumoto & Fletcher, 1996;Thornhill & Fincher, 2014). Researchers also call for identifying additional factors (e.g., Liang et al., 2020) as well as for updating the extant findings with newer and more comprehensive data (e.g., Gokmen et al., 2021;Ibanez & Sisodia, 2020;Upadhyaya et al., 2020). ...
... Investigating the possible origins of cultural features in a society, researchers (Fincher et al., 2008;Thornhill & Fincher, 2014) argue that historical as well as contemporary prevalence of infectious diseases could have led to more collectivism as opposed to individualism. This finding was consistent across four different measures of individualism/collectivism. ...
... Regarding cultural dimensions, the findings of this study largely converge with the recent observation that collectivism and power distance could induce mass-scale behaviors necessary to stem the ongoing pandemic. Researchers consistently find collectivism helpful in containing pandemics historically (e.g., Fincher et al., 2008;Thornhill & Fincher, 2014) and individualism doing the opposite (Morand & Walther, 2018). Similar results are specifically seen vis-à-vis Covid-19 (e.g., Cao et al., 2020;Gokmen et al., 2021). ...
Researchers have begun exploring the impact of societal culture on Covid-19 outcomes (morbidity and mortality). However, emerging findings need integration with prior literature on societal culture and infectious diseases. Moreover, accumulation of knowledge warrants an update while overcoming certain limitations of samples as well as construct validity concerns. Accordingly, hypotheses are derived based on extant evidence proposing the impact of certain cultural practices on Covid-19 outcomes across countries. These hypotheses are tested using the cultural practice scores from GLOBE studies after controlling for certain covariates identified in literature. Multiple regression results reveal that societal culture significantly explains Covid-19 outcomes beyond the explanation due to control variables. Specifically, power distance and institutional collectivism show negative association with both Covid-19 morbidity and mortality. Additionally, performance orientation shows negative association with Covid-19 morbidity. It appears that power distance may ensure conformity to prescribed behaviors and features of performance orientation may facilitate swift and effective containment of Covid-19 cases. The significance of institutional collectivism—but not in-group collectivism—emerging as the form of collectivism showing negative association with Covid-19 outcomes is also discussed.
... The motivationally opposing values focusing on self-protection and anxiety avoidance were expected to be negatively related to well-being as the motivational goals focus on preventing or controlling threats and uncertainties, which undermines well-being. This threat perspective is also compatible with evolutionary theories of parasite stress (Thornhill & Fincher, 2014). Second, person-focused values may also promote well-being because their motivational content allows individuals to pursue their own goals and express their personal interests and capacities. ...
... By studying the crosstemporal lagged changes in associations controlling individual differences, we found evidence that higher self-transcendence value states were associated with increased well-being at the subsequent time points that are not artifacts of baseline differences (Hamaker et al., 2015). This pattern is broadly aligned with theorizing across the social and biological sciences, including self-determination theory, postmodernization theory, and parasite-stress theory which highlight that altruistic and growth-oriented values likely facilitate greater well-being (Deci & Ryan, 2012;Inglehart, 2018;Ryan & Deci, 2001;Thornhill & Fincher, 2014;Welzel, 2013;Welzel & This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. ...
There have been long-standing debates on the relationships between values as important motivational goals and well-being. We used a longitudinal network perspective to examine how value states and well-being are related over time, separating within-person lagged, within-person contemporaneous, and between-person perspectives. A total of 227 young adults (1,007 observation points) participated in the study and rated their values states and well-being over a 6-day period. Value-well-being linkages varied across levels of analysis for participants who reported at least three times (N = 187). Momentary self-transcendence values predicted both simultaneous and subsequent well-being. The motivationally opposing self-enhancement values negatively related to well-being contemporaneously within person. This supports clinical research emphasizing that pursuing other-focused values increases well-being and highlights the importance of values for well-being. At the same time, individual differences in self-transcendence values were negatively related to well-being, supporting previous value models. In line with self-determination theory, openness to change values were related to well-being at both the within- and between-person level. These patterns unify diverging theoretical positions, and suggest that different dynamics operate across levels (within-person lagged or contemporaneous vs. between-person). We also provide new insights into value dynamics by describing how distributions of value states may give rise to more stable value differences between individuals. Overall, within- and between-person associations differed suggesting greater attention to person-level processes is needed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
... The set of psychological mechanisms that help people to detect cues of diseases and engage in behaviors that prevent infections, collectively called the behavioral immune system, has explained a myriad of social psychology observations (e.g., prejudice against members of outgroups) as disease-avoidance mechanisms (Ackerman et al., 2018). Wide-ranging implications of the behavioral immune system (Thornhill & Fincher, 2014b), along with Hofstede's findings that geographical latitude was a strong predictor of IC (Hofstede, 2001), helped researchers to speculate about the origin of IC in the context of PST. ...
... Earliest parasite stress research did not clarify the mechanisms through which regional pathogen exposure can lead to collectivism and individualism, but later this link was attributed to the evolved mechanisms specialized to select cultural values (Thornhill & Fincher, 2014b). But the origin of a social structure as complicated and multifaceted as cultural orientation is highly unlikely to be explained by a single mechanism, and a number of genetic and cognitive processes have been proposed and studied as possible candidates for the link between pathogens and IC. ...
Among four proposed origins of individualism-collectivism, modernization theory, rice versus wheat theory, climato-economic theory, and pathogen stress theory, the latter has gained more attention in cross-cultural and evolutionary psychology. Since the parasite stress theory of values and sociality makes a connection between infectious diseases and cultural orientations, it gained even more popularity during the COVID pandemic. But despite extensive research on parasite stress theory, it is not still clear what kind of infectious disease contributes more to the emergence of cultures, what are the possible mechanisms through which pathogenic threat gives rise to cultural systems, and how parasite stress might affect vertical vs. horizontal dimensions of individualism-collectivism. This review summarizes and integrates major findings of parasite stress theory related to individualism-collectivism and its closely related variables and discusses future directions that researchers can take to answer the remaining questions.
... The motivationally opposing values focusing on self-protection and anxiety avoidance were expected to be negatively related to well-being as the motivational goals focus on preventing or controlling threats and uncertainties, which undermines well-being. This threat perspective is also compatible with evolutionary theories of parasite stress (Thornhill & Fincher, 2014). Second, person-focused values may also promote well-being because their motivational content allows individuals to pursue their own goals and express their personal interests and capacities. ...
... By studying the crosstemporal lagged changes in associations controlling individual differences, we found evidence that higher self-transcendence value states were associated with increased well-being at the subsequent time points that are not artifacts of baseline differences (Hamaker et al., 2015). This pattern is broadly aligned with theorizing across the social and biological sciences, including self-determination theory, postmodernization theory, and parasite-stress theory which highlight that altruistic and growth-oriented values likely facilitate greater well-being (Deci & Ryan, 2012;Inglehart, 2018;Ryan & Deci, 2001;Thornhill & Fincher, 2014;Welzel, 2013;Welzel & This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. ...
There have been long-standing debates on the relationships between values as important motivational goals and wellbeing. We used a longitudinal network perspective to examine how value states and wellbeing are related over time, separating temporal, within-person and between-person perspectives. A total of 227 young adults rated their values states and wellbeing over a one-week period (1007 observation points). Value-wellbeing linkages varied across levels of analysis. Momentary self-transcendence values predicted both simultaneous and subsequent wellbeing. The motivationally opposing self-enhancement values negatively related to wellbeing within person. This supports clinical research emphasising that pursuing other-focused values increases wellbeing and highlights the importance of values for wellbeing. At the same time, individual differences in self-transcendence values were negatively related to wellbeing, supporting previous value models. In line with self-determination theory, openness-to-change values were related to wellbeing at both the within- and between-person level. These patterns unify diverging theoretical positions, and suggest that different dynamics operate at temporal, within-person and between-person levels. We also provide new insights into value dynamics by describing how distributions of value states may give rise to more stable value differences between individuals. Overall, within- and between-person associations differed suggesting greater attention to person-level processes is needed.
... The COVID-19 crisis might have changed people's goal structure by accentuating the existential threat of the disease and downgrading the perceived urgency of environmental problems (Rousseau & Deschacht, 2020). Also, there is some evidence that worries about the spread of diseases affect social values and attitudes (Thornhill & Fincher, 2014), including even apparently unrelated political preferences (Tybur et al., 2016) and interpersonal relationships (Park et al., 2012). It is plausible that by shaping values (e.g., by diminishing openness to change, see Thornhill & Fincher, 2014), worries about the spread of COVID-19 could have also affected environmental motivation. ...
... Also, there is some evidence that worries about the spread of diseases affect social values and attitudes (Thornhill & Fincher, 2014), including even apparently unrelated political preferences (Tybur et al., 2016) and interpersonal relationships (Park et al., 2012). It is plausible that by shaping values (e.g., by diminishing openness to change, see Thornhill & Fincher, 2014), worries about the spread of COVID-19 could have also affected environmental motivation. ...
The literature shows that threats unrelated to environmental problems can shift attention away from these problems and affect pro-environmental behavior. It is not clear whether the COVID-19 crisis that started in 2019 had any uniform effect on pro-environmental behavior and decision making. In two preregistered panel studies conducted before and during the first COVID wave (n1 = 206, n2 = 164) and before and during the second COVID wave (n3 = n4 = 260), we found that the crisis had had no uniform effect on pro-environmental behaviors, environmental attitude, nor on the behavioral costs of general pro-environmental behavior. Analysis of one specific pro-environmental behavior, the choice of environmentally friendly delivery of products, revealed that the general preference for green delivery services and heightened preference for green delivery services among people with higher attitude levels remained unchanged by the COVID-19 crisis. Thus, if the COVID-19 crisis has had any effects on pro-environmental behaviors, these effects are probably fragmented, specific to certain population segments, and not visible in the short-term perspective.
... This procedure is appropriate for the taking after reasons: i) the consider includes an observational examination of a developing marvel, which is the utilize of social media; ii) the consider accumulates realities to impartially degree event of certain design; and iv) the think about increases in value diverse elucidations of individuals on their encounters. Interestingly, the Parasite Stress Theory of Values [3][4][5] implies that the historical occurrence of infectious diseases may have played a role in the development of Individualist and Collectivist cultural differences. Societies with a high caliber of pathogenic stress were more liable to develop a collectivist culture that accommodates as a gregarious aegis against infectious disease spread, whereas societies with low caliber of pathogenic stress developed the individualistic value systems [3]. ...
... Given the circumstances, individualist countries should make major attempts at cultural adaption in that direction, especially during outbreaks of diseases. The speculation of pathogen prevalence, or the parasite stress model [3][4][5], states that people living in areas with greater incidence of infections are more likely to become collectivist in the long run than people living in areas with fewer incidence. The aftermath of COVID-19 is likely to be something never witnessed to world citizens. ...
Across the continents 209 pandemic affected countries reportedly adopted standard preventive protocol for COVID-19, but the pandemic spread and onslaught showed different patterns in different countries. This human habit of maintaining or not maintaining physical distance is a result of a country’s culture which is rooted in its national heritage and traditions and the current pandemic scenario provides an opportunity to study the flexibility and adaptability of cultures between pandemic responses, on a governmental and societal level. In this study culture was defined using Hofstede's dimensions Individualism/Collectivism. An exploratory case-study methodology was taken after employing a post- positivist approach. The study findings indicated collectivism encourages faster and more effective COVID-19 responses and hence suggest cultural adjustments for the purpose of infectious disease preventive intervention.
... It has been suggested that the ability to detect cues of infection at an early stage, and at a safe distance from a sick individual, has been honed so as to avoid contamination. This ability may be part of a behavioural defenceoften referred to as the behavioural immune system-that enables organisms to protect themselves against potential pathogens [6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. Accordingly, detection of sick conspecifics is common in the animal kingdom, particularly in groupliving species where infectious diseases can spread quickly [13,14]. ...
... ; Mexican, BF = 1.55 × 1011 ; Thai, BF = 1.23 × 10 8 ; Seri, BF = 2484.77, Maniq, BF = 8.36; Jahai, BF = 263.00 ...
Animals across phyla can detect early cues of infection in conspecifics, thereby reducing the risk of contamination. It is unknown, however, if humans can detect cues of sickness in people belonging to communities with whom they have limited or no experience. To test this, we presented Western faces photographed 2 h after the experimental induction of an acute immune response to one Western and five non-Western communities, including small-scale hunter-gatherer and large urban-dwelling communities. All communities could detect sick individuals. There were group differences in performance but Western participants, who observed faces from their own community, were not systematically better than all non-Western participants. At odds with the common belief that sickness detection of an out-group member should be biased to err on the side of caution, the majority of non-Western communities were unbiased. Our results show that subtle cues of a general immune response are recognized across cultures and may aid in detecting infectious threats.
... Previous research has tended to test the association of national-level parasite prevalence indices and sociality (Thornhill & Fincher, 2014); however, aggregated national-level indices may not be representative of the individuals present within them (Pollet et al., 2014). Alternatively, at the individual level, previous research has tested the effect of pathogen disgust on social cognition (e.g., Tybur et al., 2016), while pathogen disgust may not necessarily indicate the pathogenic threat (Murray & Schaller, 2016;see Lieberman & Patrick, 2014 for a contrary argument). ...
... However, an increase in the cases of the disease did not show an increase in xenophobia. In contrary to the previous research testing the effect of higher national-level pathogenic prevalence on xenophobic attitudes (Thornhill and Fincher, 2014), using an actual pathogenic threat, we could not confirm an increase in xenophobia. Also, this discrepancy between the current results and those of Faulkner et al. (2004) on xenophobia could be due to differences in methodology. ...
Previous research has related the existence of pathogenic threat to an individual's social cognition, with people avoiding physical interactions with those who have potential contagion risks. These pathogenic induced behavioral responses have broader social consequences, such as avoidance of outgroup members or negative reactions to individuals foreign to one's own group. Specially, higher pathogen threat is associated with xenophobic attitudes and ideological tendencies, such as authoritarianism and political conservatism. The COVID-19 pandemic provides an unprecedented opportunity to investigate the effect of pathogenic threat on the above-mentioned variables in a real-world situation. Collecting data during a low (N = 598) and heightened (N = 309) perceived threat of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US, our results reveal that Right-Wing Authoritarian traits, but not xenophobia, increase with a rise in the number of national pathogenic cases. Moreover, our results replicate previous findings regarding the associations between pathogen threat, political orientation, xenophobia, and Right-Wing Authoritarianism, in an actual pathogen threat scenario.
... For example, in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis (Sortheix et al., 2019) and exposure to war (Daniel et al., 2013), early adolescents' conservation values became more important, while motivationally opposing values, including selfdirection, stimulation, and hedonism, weakened. According to evolutionary theory, the collective behavioral reactions to major infectious diseases could lead to adaptive change in an individual's value orientations (Thornhill and Fincher, 2014). To reduce disease spread during a disaster, behavioral avoidance systems (e.g., decreased out-group contact) and conservation values may be activated (Woltin and Bardi, 2018). ...
Adolescence is a critical period for formulating and developing value orientations. The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically restricted people’s lives, potentially leading adolescents to reevaluate what they prioritize in life (i.e., their values) and affecting their mental health. Previous studies suggest that Chinese early adolescents’ group orientation is negatively associated with mental health more strongly in rural than in urban, whereas this rural–urban differs may vary after the outbreak of the pandemic. To examine potential changes in group orientation, mental health, and their associations during the pandemic, two cross-sectional surveys of ninth-grade students in the same three school were conducted in rural and urban China in 2019 and 2021. The results showed that compared with students before the pandemic (2019, N = 516, 48.8% girls, Mage = 14.87 years), students during the pandemic (2021, N = 655, 48.1% girls, Mage = 14.80 years) displayed lower group orientation such as group responsibility and rule abiding of rural students, and higher loneliness and depressive symptoms. Social equality, group responsibility and rule abiding were all significantly negatively associated with loneliness and depressive symptoms. Those negative associations were stronger in the urban regions than in the rural region. Follow-up invariance analysis revealed that this rural–urban difference in the relations between social equality, group responsibility, and rule abiding and mental health problems was only significant during (and not before) the pandemic. The protective effect of group orientation on mental health seems to be weakened only in rural contexts. The results suggest that significant changes in macrolevel contexts may play an important role in shaping adolescents’ value orientation and mental health.
... Cf. Polderman et al., 2005. 39 Cf. material safety (Inglehart & Welzel, 2005;Gelfand, 2018), low risk of infection (Thornhill & Fincher, 2014), little violence (Henrich, 2020), healthcare (Schmitt, 2005). 40 Welzel, 2013; for an overview, see Hübl, 2019. ...
A World of Changemakers – how can a hybrid arts lecture series concept in e-learning create attitudes and shape skills as a playful and critical thinking navigator in an uncertain world? To re-create meaning is an interdisciplinary cross-sectional task of our zeitgeist in a civil society. The international contributors represent key roles in relevant philosophical, technical or economic debates, non-university community art & design projects or companies.
... The main approach to understanding cultural change can be observed from an ecological perspective. The ecological approach considers that cultural change occurs due to pathogens or infectious disease outbreaks (Thornhill & Fincher, 2014). The ecological approach shows that culture is not formed suddenly, but rather through dialectical processes between individuals and their environment. ...
The question of what kind of content people share on social media is brought up by the COVID-19 pandemic and new normal policy. The government's well-coordinated campaign and the opposition's harsh comments are two of the reasons Indonesians actively utilize Twitter in relation to the new normal. This study intends to characterize and evaluate the presentation of new normal messages by opinion leaders on Twitter between May 16 and 29, 2020, since opinion leaders have historically been the network's active pioneers on a topic. The theories used for this study are self-presentation, opinion leaders, and the social media approach. The accounts of opinion leaders are determined through Drone Emprit's release of Top 100 New Normal Influencers, which then, generated six profiles: @haikal_hassan, @haris_azhar, @msaid_didu, @ridwankamil, @ismailfahmi, and @kurawa. The qualitative content analysis method was employed in this study with inductive reasoning. The findings revealed seven categories of new normal statements by opinion leaders, which corresponded to three key speech themes: 1) economic issues, 2) the implementation order of new normal life, and 3) negative sentiments. Additionally, we discovered that when opinion leaders create online personas, they do not aim to transcend the most fundamental parts of their backstage selves. Instead, they establish personas and personalities that are based on the same characters from the offline world. Meanwhile, this study suggests how the data might be useful for the Government, to consider the capacity of text-based platforms to help them learn about behaviors and needs during or even post-pandemic.
... Cf. Polderman et al., 2005. 39 Cf. material safety (Inglehart & Welzel, 2005;Gelfand, 2018), low risk of infection (Thornhill & Fincher, 2014), little violence (Henrich, 2020), healthcare (Schmitt, 2005). ...
A World of Changemakers – how can a hybrid arts lecture series concept in e-learning create attitudes and shape skills as a playful and critical thinking navigator in an uncertain world? To re-create meaning is an interdisciplinary cross-sectional task of our zeitgeist in a civil society. The international contributors represent key roles in relevant philosophical, technical or economic debates, non-university community art & design projects or companies.
... Pathogen prevalence can have regional influences on the development and persistence of norms and beliefs ( Thornhill and Fincher, 2014 ;Van Leeuwen et al., 2012 ). Our estimates of pathogen prevalence in Point estimates with 95% uncertainty intervals for ( A ) all regression coefficients as well as for ( B ) the within-sample variance explained and the standard deviations for the variance across states and the spatial and non-spatial components of the variance across counties. ...
Infectious diseases have been an impending threat to the survival of individuals and groups throughout our evolutionary history. As a result, humans have developed psychological pathogen-avoidance mechanisms and groups have developed societal norms that respond to the presence of disease-causing microorganisms in the environment. In this work, we demonstrate that morality plays a central role in the cultural and psychological architectures that help humans avoid pathogens. We present a collection of studies which together provide an integrated understanding of the socio-ecological and psychological impacts of pathogens on human morality. Specifically, in Studies 1 (2,834 U.S. counties) and 2 (67 nations), we show that regional variation in pathogen prevalence is consistently related to aggregate moral Purity. In Study 3, we use computational linguistic methods to show that pathogen-related words co-occur with Purity words across multiple languages. In Studies 4 (n = 513) and 5 (n = 334), we used surveys and social psychological experimentation to show that pathogen-avoidance attitudes are correlated with Purity. Finally, in Study 6, we found that historical prevalence of pathogens is linked to Care, Loyalty, and Purity. We argue that particular adaptive moral systems are developed and maintained in response to the threat of pathogen occurrence in the environment. We draw on multiple methods to establish connections between pathogens and moral codes in multiple languages, experimentally induced situations, individual differences, U.S. counties, 67 countries, and historical periods over the last century.
... First, the parasite stress theory of values (Fincher et al., 2008;Murray & Schaller, 2010;Thornhill & Fincher, 2014) suggests that the historical prevalence of infectious diseases could be an important source of the origins of IC cultural differences. According to this view, IC could be an evolutionary adaptation to the environment. ...
We propose a perspective based on the individualism versus collectivism (IC) cultural distinction to understand the diverging early-stage transmission outcomes of COVID-19 between countries. Since individualism values personal freedom, people in such cultures would be less likely to make the collective action of staying at home and less likely to support compulsory measures. As a reaction to the public will, governments of individualistic societies would be more hesitant to take compulsory measures, leading to the delay of necessary responses. With processed COVID-19 data that can provide a fair comparison, we find that COVID-19 spread much faster in more individualistic societies than in more collectivistic societies. We further use pronoun drop and absolute latitude as the instruments for IC to address reverse causality and omitted variable bias. The results are robust to different measures. We propose to consider the role of IC not only for understanding the current pandemic but also for thinking about future trends in the world.
... In Thornhill & Fincher (2014), this is referred to as the "parasite stress theory of cultural values". Morand & Walther (2018) examine the flipside of this theory and hypothesize that more individualistic societies suffer from a higher number of infectious disease outbreaks. ...
... The reasoning is that, historically, a heavier disease burden increased the perceived risk of infection when interacting with strangers and led people to limit their social interactions within the context of identifiable ingroups. This is known as the parasite-stress theory of values and sociality and is due to Thornhill and Fincher (2014) who moreover argue that these historical responses persist over time and are expressed today in the guise of cultural traitsmost notably individualism versus collectivismreflecting the salience of ingroups. Strong ingroups also tend to be hierarchically structured. ...
This article marshals empirical evidence from a cross-section of up to 87 countries to consider the impact of clientelism on fiscal redistribution in the form of direct taxes and public transfers. Clientelism may directly undermine fiscal redistribution towards poorer individuals because their political support is cheaper to buy, political patrons will limit redistribution to keep clients dependent and, moreover, will eschew fiscal policies that target broad categories of citizens based on explicit criteria, and favor instead private benefits that they can disburse to individual clients with a relatively high degree of discretion. The empirical analysis controls for a range of potentially confounding covariates, explores various transmission channels and accounts for the real possibility that more extensive redistributive programs may undermine the strength of clientelism. The results strongly suggest that clientelism is inimical to income redistribution towards the poor through taxes and transfers and, moreover, identify reduced public good provision as one indirect channel through which clientelism may undermine fiscal redistribution. This is an open access article.
... The evolutionary advantages of this system are great: parasites, bacteria and viruses pose significant threats to our collective survival. Revulsion keeps these (where possible) out of our food, bodies and societies [27]. This system also impacted our social world; "Disgust and the behavioral immune system have come to undergird a variety of moral reactions, for example, to immigrants and sexual deviants" ( [21], p. 71). ...
This preregistered, randomized controlled experiment attempts to distil the effects of Moral Foundational Framing on attitudes and behaviours towards refugees in the UK. First, moral foundations were found to robustly predict both attitudes and behaviours practised towards refugees. Next, a degree of support was found for the effectiveness of moral foundational framing in adjusting attitudes, but not behaviour, toward refugees in the UK. Individuals who scored highly on certain morals were susceptible to influence by moral foundational framing, but not always in ways that may have been expected. We conclude that the robust relationship found between moral foundations and attitudes towards refugees stresses the importance of actively shaping moral foundations. This notion is strengthened by the comparatively less robust effects of framing. Findings could be used to inform the practice of individuals interested in influencing opinion and behaviour, particularly in support of refugee acceptance.
... The inversed gross savings of a society is an appropriate instrument for indulgence since indulgent societies are less willing to save (Hofstede et al., 2010). Several studies have shown the spread of infectious diseases as a significant predictor of national culture dimensions including indulgence since societies with a high prevalence of infectious diseases develop specific behaviors such as ethnocentrism and xenophobia to avoid them (Boubakri et al., 2021;Thornhill and Fincher, 2014;Volk and Atkinson, 2013). In our data, these two instruments also meet the fundamental conditions of exogeneity to be applied as instruments for indulgence; that is, they are correlated with the independent variable and do not directly predict risk-taking (Roberts and Whited, 2013). ...
This study examines the impact of Hofstede's indulgence vs restraint national culture dimension (IVR) on firms' risk-taking behavior. We argue that firms in more indulgent societies will show greater risk-taking behavior given their tendencies to be less rigid and their greater inclination for discounting risk-taking losses. We further argue that the buffers that slack resources provide against risk-taking losses and the positive expectations of potential gains from risk-taking provided by growth opportunities will further increase firms' risk-taking behavior when interacting with indulgence mechanisms. Our findings from a 37-country study support these arguments. They show that high indulgence does increase firms' risk-taking behavior and slack resources and growth opportunities intensify this causal effect. Tests of three-way interactions further reveal that the positive impact of indulgence on firms' risk-taking behavior is strongest when both slack resources are abundant and the growth opportunities are high. We extend current knowledge about culture's effect on firm behavior.
... Similarly, religious diversity is positively related to parasite stress (Fincher & Thornhill, 2008). These results suggest that adherence to traditional norms and out-group avoidance reinforce barriers between social groups and ultimately reduce parasite transmission (Thornhill & Fincher, 2014). ...
... A second contextual factor, pathogen prevalence, is a collectivism-inducing mechanism against the risks threating the survival of the group Murray and Schaller 2010;Thornhill and Fincher 2014;Morand and Walther 2018). Natural disasters or events may shape cultural values by forcing society into adopting certain cultural practices for survival goals. ...
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Collectivism-individualism framework is widely employed to explain differences in economic development and democratization. However, little empirical work has been done about the religious microfoundations of this framework. This study closes this gap by providing a global empirical analysis of religion and individualism. Distinguishing between piety and religious identity, the study proposes theoretical mechanisms linking religion to varieties of individualism controlling for diffusive effects of denominational size and collectivism inducing exogenous factors. A series of multilevel model estimations using the World Values Surveys along with denominational composition and pathogen prevalence confirm that religiosity inhibits social and expressive individualism but engenders economic individualism. Some support is found for Weber's religious ethic thesis as differences emerge among religious denominations. Pathogen prevalence and denominational size somewhat strengthens the negative correlation between religiosity and individualism. These results are robust to alternative specifications and have significant implications about the role of religiosity in shaping individualistic attitudes.
... Several analysts assimilated personal values with the conservativeliberal dichotomy (Jost et al., 2009;Carney et al., 2008). Conservative/collectivist values and liberal/individualist values show their divergence in factors, both socio-politicalsuch as authoritarianism/egalitarianism, autocracy/democracy, social prejudices, social networks and hierarchy,and individualssuch as self-concept, personality, adherence to tradition or adherence to norms and economic outcomes (Thornhill and Fincher, 2014). Collectivism is also associated by experts with traditionalism, conformity, stability and security. ...
Purpose
Happiness management is receiving increasing attention in business, and this is reflected in the literature. But any business management option has to be grounded in a true awareness or belief that it will be a suitable and appropriate choice. In this belief the personal values of those who have the power to lead the way to weigh heavily. In this sense, there are personal values that, when used as guidelines in the management of a company, seem to promote the happiness of employees in the work environment. The purpose of this paper is to find the personal values of the entrepreneur. As a secondary objective, the authors also study whether these values are associated with certain entrepreneurs’ socio-demographic factors (gender and age).
Design/methodology/approach
The group to be studied is the Spanish business community. An exploratory study is carried out, first, with the definition of value constructs according to Schwartz’s personal values model and, second, with a relational analysis, measuring association effects through logistic regression.
Findings
Two higher-order personal values of the entrepreneur are found that seem to contain all the elements that would lead to management styles that would facilitate happiness at work. These values emerge from a dimension model of Schwartz’s theory of basic human values. MVP which, however, does not follow its four adjacent/antagonistic dimensions, but is composed of three dimensions adjacent to each other and, therefore, complementary. Moreover, some stereotypes in the literature on the relationships between personal values and certain socio-demographic factors are broken down and their effects on happiness at work are revealed.
Research limitations/implications
One of the limitations of this work is the relatively small sample size. In this sense, it would be useful to check whether the overall results are repeated in larger samples. Another limitation is that this is a portrait of the group at a given time. Given the experimental nature of this type of work, especially in the case of socio-demographic factors, it would be advisable to carry out a follow-up longitudinal analysis with a time horizon. This would allow a more precise investigation of the effects of the variables mentioned above. In addition, a third limitation is that the authors are studying the collective of Spanish entrepreneurs, and in the study of personal values, culture has a determining influence (Schenck, 2016; Boer and Boehnke, 2016; Perozo and Paz, 2016). It would also be worthwhile considering this study by sector: are the values the same for entrepreneurs in different sectors?; or in some specific sectors, for example, are there differences between entrepreneurs with tech businesses versus non-tech businesses or those who make the circular economy or the green economy a guideline for their organizations? Thus, technology companies must be open to change. Openness and innovation are for their entrepreneurs’ key values to ensure their performance (Tseng, 2010; Van Auken et al. , 2008). However, in these organizations, there is a framework of conflicting values between the required flexibility and the values of power and control that the entrepreneur needs, and wants, to have (Albarracín et al. , 2014). On the other hand, personal values determine green self-identity and moderate its relationships with ecological care and the moral obligation of the entrepreneur (Blankenberg and Alhusen, 2019; Barbarossa et al. , 2017). Therefore, it could be analysed whether these values are maintained in entrepreneurs in these sectors, influencing, as discussed in this paper, greater happiness in the work context; and whether they are conditioned by gender or age (Fotieva, 2021; Li et al. , 2020). It would also be helpful to study the socio-demographic influence further, to analyse the possibility of interaction or confounding effects between socio-demographic variables and some other variables not addressed in this paper. For example, does purchasing power or income level, affect personal values? And do the values that give content to F2, power and control, lead the entrepreneur to a higher level of income level or vice versa? Do other factors play a role? In fact, for Hirigoyen (2008), values such as altruism, benevolence and universalism are considered as obstacles to the development of the company. Subsequently, authors such as Salas-Vallina (2018) and Boubakary (2015) conclude that far from that idea, these axiological elements would lead to more significant business development through the satisfaction and happiness they generate in employees and stimulate their productivity, matching with the conclusions. It would be interesting, as a complement to the approach of this work, to carry out a study on the happiness at work of the entrepreneur’s employees, being the group of employees surveyed. Knowing the profile of values of an entrepreneur through the scale proposed in this work, it would be possible to analyse whether this is associated with greater or lesser perceived happiness among his/her employees. As mentioned above, from the methodological point of view, a risk of using the multidimensional scaling modelling for the analysis of personal values is that the respondent reflects more what he/she considers socially desirable than his/her true perception. This bias is one of the main limitations of psychological research. However, the fact that European Statistical Office surveys are guided by experts, both in processing -knowing how to deal with social desirability in personal values research (Danioni and Barni, 2020) – and in data collection, eliminates this limitation.
Practical implications
However, despite the above limitations, this paper makes important contributions. On the one hand, at a theoretical and instrumental level, it shows that the higher-order values graph of Spanish entrepreneurs follows the circumplex essence of the Schwartz value model but does not obey its number of higher-order dimensions. In the case of entrepreneurs, it consists of three elements, three dimensions, adjacent and complementary. None of them contradicts any other. A methodology is created to portray the Spanish entrepreneur in an axiological way and, from this portrait, to reveal his/her tendency towards a leadership style that promotes the happiness of his/her employees, through the importance given to these three factors or dimensions. These dimensions are weighted, in turn, by issues such as gender or age group. For added practical purposes, this information would be beneficial, in the first place, for all those who want to work in and with a particular entrepreneur. The type of leadership or management expected is a factor or reason why a person decides where he/she would like to work (Qing et al. , 2020; Lee, 2016). This is not only for the potential employees of that business but also for all those groups or stakeholders, who engage with the company to perform their functions. Individuals make important decisions and choices about their relationships in the work environment based on the alignment of their values with those of the party they want to engage with (Sagiv et al. , 2015). On the other hand, it can serve entrepreneurship educators. By knowing the value factors of entrepreneurs, adjusted to the culture of the particular territory, they will be able to pass on this information to their entrepreneurship students (Karimi and Makreet, 2020; Arieli and Tenne-Gazit, 2017) and teach them how they could increase the happiness at work. It also serves to better understand the constructs of management values-employee engagement-workplace happiness in the current environment (Ravina-Ripoll et al. , 2020; Salas-Vallina et al. , 2017; Wang and Yang, 2016), by introducing the role of personal values on the entrepreneur’s governance style into this construct (Figure 1).
Social implications
Finally, this study can also have social implications, making its tiny contribution to the SDGs through the study of personal values that guide the behaviour of the entrepreneur. The decision by international institutions for countries to implement the sustainable development goals (SDGs) (UNSDG 2030 Agenda) as cross-cutting strands of their policies has boosted the idea of addressing happiness at work. Thus, SDG 8 talks about Decent Work. In addition to the priority of improving the conditions of groups living in discriminatory working environments (child labour, poverty, precariousness, etc.), taken to its maximum expression, this objective encompasses much more. Workers spend a large part of their lives at work. At the same time, a business needs its employees to be productive. SDG 8 aims to ensure that people have quality employment, increasing their productivity and consumption potential. On the other hand, SDG 3 is about “Health and Well-being”, i.e. ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all ages. It is also about health and well-being in the work environment. Issues such as interpersonal relationships at work, environment and teams, organizational culture, role in the organization, autonomy at work and fostering innovative spirit, can be factors that, if poorly managed, reduce the feeling or perception of happiness at work, especially in today’s digital world (Foncubierta-Rodríguez and Montero-Sánchez, 2019; Leka and Houdmont, 2010; Näswall et al. , 2008).
Originality/value
The role of certain higher-order personal values of the entrepreneur is highlighted, which could make him/her tend towards the realization of happiness management practices. Furthermore, through the methodology used, a model of the entrepreneur’s higher-order values has been established, which can be used as a tool to generate reasonable expectations about his/her way of governance and to what extent it is close to a framework conducive to happiness management. This information can be beneficial to all those people and groups that establish relationships with the company, from managers and employees to external stakeholders. In this way, it also helps to anticipate the companýs response to corporate social responsibility.
... Pazhoohi and Luna (2018) argued that the prevalence of metal bands in a country is representative of that country's openness to transgression, tolerance of out-group members and acceptance of deviant behaviours. Interestingly, according to the parasite stress theory, there is higher aversion against unusual and deviant behaviours and outgroup individuals where the parasitic stress is higher (Faulkner et al., 2004;Fincher & Thornhill, 2012;Thornhill & Fincher, 2014). This agreed with Pazhoohi and Luna's finding that metal band prevalence is negatively related to the prevalence of infectious diseases in a country. ...
According to life history theory, as resources and energy are not infinite, individuals show behavioural and psychological variations on a fast-slow continuum associated to their life strategies. Fast strategies are associated with short-term gains and more opportunistic attitudes, while slow strategies are associated with delayed gratification and investment in long-term goals and plans. Art production, including music making, is a costly activity, demanding time and money for training, as well as an investment in a non-secure future. Hypothesizing that artistic production is an indicator of slow life strategy and should be more prevalent in safer and more affluent environments, we investigate whether music production is more prevalent and successful in higher socioeconomic environments. Across two studies, we investigated the effects of parasite stress and Human Development Index (HDI) on different indicators of metal music production (i.e. number of bands and labels) across the USA and the world. We found that HDI is a better predictor of metal music production than parasite stress. Our results suggest that individuals from harsher environments (including poorer health, education and wealth) are less likely to be able to afford resources to engage in artistic activities that include delayed gratifications.
... The parasite-stress theory of authoritarianism posits that the costs of being infected by outgroup human members would motivate more authoritarian behavior. Therefore, it predicts that infectious diseases that can be transmitted between humans would be more relevant to authoritarianism than infectious diseases that cannot be transmitted between humans (Fincher & Thornhill, 2012;Thornhill et al., 2010;Thornhill & Fincher, 2014). Epidemiologists have identified that there are two types of infectious diseases that humans can acquire: (1) nonzoonotic diseases, which can be acquired from other humans or animals and transmitted onto other humans (e.g., measles, cholera, leprosy), and (2) zoonotic diseases, which can only be acquired from non-human species (e.g., Lyme disease, rabies). ...
What are the socio-political consequences of infectious diseases? Humans have evolved to avoid disease and infection, resulting in a set of psychological mechanisms that promote disease-avoidance, referred to as the behavioral immune system (BIS). One manifestation of the BIS is the cautious avoidance of unfamiliar, foreign, or potentially contaminating stimuli. Specifically, when disease infection risk is salient or prevalent, authoritarian attitudes can emerge that seek to avoid and reject foreign outgroups while favoring homogenous, familiar ingroups. In the largest study conducted on the topic to date (N > 240,000), elevated regional levels of infectious pathogens were related to more authoritarian attitudes on three geographical levels: across U.S. metropolitan regions, U.S. states, and cross-culturally across 47 countries. The link between pathogen prevalence and authoritarian psychological dispositions predicted conservative voting behavior in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election and more authoritarian governance and state laws, in which one group of people imposes asymmetrical laws on others in a hierarchical structure. Furthermore, cross-cultural analysis illustrated that the relationship between infectious diseases and authoritarianism was pronounced for infectious diseases that can be acquired from other humans (nonzoonotic), and does not generalize to other infectious diseases that can only be acquired from non-human species (zoonotic diseases). At a time of heightened awareness of infectious diseases, the current findings are important reminders that public health and ecology can have ramifications for socio-political attitudes by shaping how citizens vote and are governed.
... Through the present studies, by integrating previous empirical findings concerning the behavioral immune system theory (e.g., Murray & Schaller, 2016;Park et al., 2007;Thornhill & Fincher, 2014) with the theoretical insights regarding biological dehumanization and prejudice (e.g., Costello & Hodson, 2010;Savage, 2007;Volpato & Andrighetto, 2015), we demonstrated that the exceptional epidemiological situation due to the COVID-19 spread has the capacity to directly foster social-cognitive biologization of both outgroup and ingroup, but not other forms of outgroup prejudice. In line with these findings, Wilde and colleagues (2014) analyzed dehumanizing processes by distinguishing them from negative attitudes and evaluations. ...
Through two studies (N = 602) conducted in Italy between February and March 2020, we examined the impact of the COVID-19 emergency on biologization—a form of dehumanization that involves the perception of others as contagious entities—and outgroup prejudice. Overall, results showed that higher emergency perception was associated with greater biologization toward the groups most affected by the virus, namely the Chinese outgroup and the Italian ingroup. In turn, biologization toward the outgroup increased prejudice against that group. We also found that when the pandemic hit Italy, the greater emergency perception was associated with increased emotional closeness with Chinese people, resulting in reduced biologization and prejudice toward them. However, these results held true only for Italian respondents who reported higher levels of ingroup biologization. Taken together, our findings contribute to the knowledge gaps of biologization and prejudice by also providing relevant insights into the ongoing health emergency.
... 9. Members of racial minorities would likely have been a source of disgust in the 17 th century across Europe (see e.g. Thornhill & Fincher, 2014). 10. ...
In this article, an account of the architecture of the cognitive contamination system is offered, according to which the contamination system can generate contamination representations in circumstances that do not satisfy the norms of contamination, including in cases of mere visual contact with disgusting objects. It is argued that this architecture is important for explaining the content, logic, distribution, and persistence of maternal impression beliefs – according to which fetal defects are caused by the pregnant mother’s experiences and actions – which in turn provide important evidence of the architecture of the cognitive contamination system.
... In other words, ecological conditions associated with unrestricted access to water and ease of navigation facilitate the emergence of autonomous and agentic values (Welzel, 2014), suggesting higher openness to change and self-transcendence values in regions characterized by cool water (CW) conditions. Focusing on the demand side of ecology, an alternative account of value differences has been proposed in the context of parasite stress theory (Fincher et al., 2008, Thornhill & Fincher, 2014. Similar to Welzel's broad emancipation theory, parasite stress theory emphasizes environmental pressure as a major causal factor in the emergence of value difference, this time in the form of the prevalence of communicable diseases and parasites in the environment. ...
What variables are associated with cross-cultural differences in values at the individual level? In this study, the statistical effect of variables associated with ecological demands and available economic and cognitive resources on self-reported values are investigated in two independent samples to test the replicability of effects. Values are operationalized using a 10-item version inspired by Schwartz’ value theory. The effects of national wealth, climatic demands, availability of cool water, and parasite stress at the national level are used to predict value scores of individuals within nations using nationally representative data from all inhabited continents ( k = 49 and k = 58; Ns = 64,491 and 81,991). Using mixed-effect models, new insights into individual- and nation-level dynamics in value scores are provided. First, the paper extends previous cultural theories to the individual level by investigating the effects of education and personal income as individual-level resources. Both personal income and education have strong direct effects on value scores. Second, higher education acts as a cognitive resource which turns climatic demands into challenges, effectively unpackaging nation-level theorizing with individual level dynamics. Third, contrary to previous nation-level research, parasite stress was not a significant predictor of individual-level values. Forth, supporting recent theorizing, individuals located in cool water regions reported significantly higher self-transcendence values. Fifth, the effects of wealth on openness values were convergent and reinforcing across levels (higher wealth is associated with more openness values), but operated in opposing directions for self-transcendence values (national wealth is associated with self-transcendent values, individual wealth is associated with self-enhancing values). The current patterns suggest that cultural research needs to pay more attention to individual versus nation-level dynamics and increase replication efforts with independent samples.
... Second, Fincher et al. (2008) , Murray and Schaller (2010) , Thornhill and Fincher (2014) , and Fogli and Veldkamp (2020) use pathogen prevalence as an instrument to identify the causal effect of social networks on the rate of technology diffusion. According to the pathogen-stress theory, a high prevalence of infectious diseases makes people reluctant to interact with others from outside their communities. ...
The effects of the individualism vs. collectivism cultural dichotomy on economic outcomes have been widely recognized in the literature. We propose and test the hypothesis that individuals and populations located in areas exposed long-term to more ultraviolet radiation (UV-R; sunlight) exhibit a greater degree of collectivism. We provide individual level evidence using data from the World Values Survey, evidence from pre-industrial societies using data from the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, and cross-country findings.
We propose that the mechanism works via the eye disease cataract. Populations exposed to higher amounts of UV-R have higher incidence of cataract. A greater probability of eye disease raises the level of uncertainty avoidance and risk aversion, and increases the importance of close family or village bonds, facilitating the emergence of collectivism. This has provided an insurance mechanism against income shocks associated with poor eyesight and blindness. Moreover, humans tend to view disabilities such as blindness to indicate a positive probability of being associated with pathogen threats, resulting in less out-group interaction and greater collectivism. Empirical evidence supports this mechanism.
... Here we gather a wide variety of demographic variables, including psychological scales relevant to infectious diseases (perceived vulnerability to disease) and collective behaviors (individualism versus collectivism). These scales and conceptual frameworks are often used to determine variation in individuals' hypervigilance response to infectious diseases (see behavioral immune system research (Schaller and Park, 2011)) or how regions with a higher prevalence of infectious diseases are related to collectivistic worldviews (see parasite stress theory (Thornhill and Fincher, 2014)). Here we aim to illuminate crucial individual and group differences that may contribute to the rejection of COVID-19 expert advice. ...
Failing to adhere to COVID-19 experts' advice could have devastating consequences for individuals and communities. Here we determine which demographic factors can impact trust in COVID-19 experts. Participants consisted of more than 1,875 online volunteers, primarily from the U.S. Survey data were collected before and after the first peak of the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S. (28th of March-15th of May 2020). We consistently find that participants with a lower perceived socioeconomic status, social conservatives, individualists, and participants who are less worried about COVID-19 are significantly more likely to support individuals who ignore the goverments', scientists', medical professionals' COVID-19 advice. Regarding race, Black participants consistently (and Hispanics to a lesser degree) were more likely to support individuals who ignore the three expert groups relative to Whites. All these findings generalized to weaker trust towards public policy decision experts. Asian and other racial groups' trust was consistently lower than Whites, but primarily numerically, not statistically. Age and gender showed weak or inconsistent results respectively. We provide an enhanced understanding of the demographic factors that can result in individuals/groups ignoring COVID-19 experts. Lack of compliance could increase the transmission risks of the virus. Therefore, non-partisan campaigns that target individuals/groups who distrust COVID-19 experts will likely reduce COVID-19 related deaths. Increasing expert representatives' racial diversity may also increase trust among racial minorities.
... Evolutionary theory suggests infectious disease may have an especially high likelihood to induce behavioral, and thus value, adaptation (Thornhill & Fincher, 2014). Such disease is likely to induce collective behavioral reactions that reduce disease spread by activating behavioral avoidance systems that are compatible with conservation values (e.g., Woltin & Bardi, 2018). ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has had immense impact on people’s lives, potentially leading individuals to reevaluate what they prioritize in life (i.e., their values). We report longitudinal data from Australians 3 years prior to the pandemic, at pandemic onset (April 2020, N = 2,321), and in November–December 2020 ( n = 1,442). While all higher order values were stable prior to the pandemic, conservation values, emphasizing order and stability, became more important during the pandemic. In contrast, openness to change values, emphasizing self-direction and stimulation, showed a decrease during the pandemic, which was reversed in late 2020. Self-transcendence values, emphasizing care for close others, society, and nature, decreased by late 2020. These changes were amplified among individuals worrying about the pandemic. The results support psychological theory of values as usually stable, but also an adaptive system that responds to significant changes in environmental conditions. They also test a new mechanism for value change, worry.
... These potential behavioral responses could have major consequences for gossip targets, as gossip receivers in our hypothetical scenarios reported to be willing to avoid, exclude, and punish group members if they ostensibly did not adhere to the novel social distancing norms (interestingly, this was regardless of whether targets were depicted as being infected with the Coronavirus or not). It is possible that the strong influence of norm violations could arise from both a fear of infection as well as a general negative reaction to norm violators (Dores Cruz, Thielmann, et al., 2020;Eriksson et al., 2017;Leask et al., 2006;Thornhill & Fincher, 2014;van Leeuwen & Petersen, 2018). In terms of the current crisis, the potentially strong impact of gossip information about Coronavirus-related norm violations could feed into the concerns of scholars warning of a loneliness pandemic (Banerjee & Rai, 2020;Holt-Lunstad et al., 2015;C. ...
To stop the spread of the Coronavirus, people must avoid infection risk. Given widespread skepticism regarding information concerning the Coronavirus received from authorities, one potentially important pathway to estimate the infectiousness of one’s group members could be through gossip (i.e., information about an absent target). Infection risk is reflected by both infection status and adherence to social distancing norms. In hypothetical scenarios ( N = 837), participants received gossip that we manipulated to describe a group member’s infection status and/or norm adherence. Results showed people tended to believe gossip and that gossip influenced behavioral intentions to avoid and punish targets of gossip as well as the perception of targets. We conclude that gossip, while potentially unreliable, could affect how people treat group members. We discuss how gossip could alleviate the Coronavirus crisis by contributing to slowing the Coronavirus’s spread, as well as exacerbate it through increased social exclusion based on unverified information.
The USA has been particularly hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and a wide spatial variation can be seen in its spread and mortality. This raises the question of why some regions are more resilient to the pandemic than others? We hypothesize that the individualism–collectivism cleavage explains the disparity in COVID-19 cases observed across sub-national units in the USA. Cultural disparity among different groups of people leads to differences in how they perceive health crises and thereby shapes the way they respond to pandemics. A heightened sense of obligation and responsibility increases in-group sociability and interdependence and raises the perceived vulnerability towards disease transmission among collectivistic individuals, and this leads to greater adherence to containment measures and social distancing rules. Our results provide evidence that more individualistic states tend to have more COVID-19 cases across the USA.
Infectious disease has been a major cause of death throughout human history. The human cultural evolution framework assumes that these stress variables have broadly shaped human psychology. However, how it affects conceptual processing, a basic cognitive component, is largely unknown. Using historical data from the past century in the US, UK, Italy, and China, the research found that pathogen severity variation across time was associated with significant changes in the collective semantic space, as reflected in language, in significantly similar ways across the countries with varying sociocultural properties. In all four countries, increasing pathogen severity was associated with increased use of words about sensory-motor properties, tight social relations and traditional values, robust against alternative stress variables, such as war, natural disaster or general economic growth. These results highlight the universal dynamic mechanisms of collective semantics, such that pathogens stresses potentially drive sensorial, tight/traditional-value oriented semantic processing.
How does the COVID-19 pandemic affect interpersonal trust? Most evidence shows that natural disasters reinforce trust and cooperation, but the COVID-19 virus differs from other calamities, since it spreads through contact with people, potentially increasing suspicion and distrust, as, according to contemporaneous writers’ accounts, seems to have been the case with the Black Death, the London plague, and the Spanish influenza. We investigate the link between interpersonal trust and individuals exposed to COVID-19, either vicariously through their community or networks or directly by becoming infected. We rely on an original panel survey, including a survey experiment, with a representative sample of adults in Italy, one of the countries hardest struck by the pandemic. Our experimental findings reveal that priming people about the risk that the pandemic poses to their health leads to a substantial increase in their trust in strangers. Our panel data analysis of within-individual effects shows that those who become infected trust strangers more than those who are not infected. Our findings could be explained by people observing higher than expected altruistic behavior or becoming more dependent on other people’s support, consistent with the “emancipation theory of trust.” When people recover from COVID-19, however, they drop to trusting strangers as much as those who were not directly exposed to the virus, an indication that the positive effects on trust during the pandemic have an emotional source. Nonetheless, the evidence suggests that, in the aggregate, there has been a small but significant increase in trust among the general population relative to prepandemic levels.
Infectious disease has been a major cause of death throughout human history. The human cultural evolution framework assumes that these stress variables have broadly shaped human psychology. However, how it affects basic cognitive components is largely unknown. Using historical data from the past century in the US, UK, Italy, and China, the research found that pathogen severity variation was associated with significant changes in the collective semantic space, as reflected in language, in similar ways across the countries. In all four countries, increasing pathogen severity led to increased use of words about sensory-motor properties, tight social relations and traditional values, robust against alternative stress variables, such as war, natural disaster or general economic growth. These results highlight the universal dynamic mechanisms of semantics and the effect of pathogens in driving sensorial, tight/traditional-value oriented semantic processing.
This paper provides a picture of how societies in the G7 countries have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our point of departure is to examine the effects of the pandemic in terms of four fundamental normative sources for well-being: Solidarity (S; willingness for social cooperation), Agency (A; empowerment to shape one’s prospects through one’s own efforts), GDP (G), and Environmental Performance (E)—SAGE for short. The normative foundations of SAGE are communitarianism, classical liberalism, materialistic utilitarianism, and ecoethics. We find that although G and E responded predictably and uniformly to the pandemic (such as G declining and carbon emissions improving), the societal responses were strikingly different. Societies that are cohesive and empowered (high S and A) may be expected to cope with the pandemic better than those that are fragmented and disempowered (low S and A). Furthermore, the pandemic has had diverse effects on S and A; while some societies became cohering and empowering (rising S and A), others became fragmenting and disempowering (falling S and A), and yet others became fragmenting and empowering. We also show that most G7 countries experienced greater tribalization (measured as the difference between inward S and outward S) during the pandemic. These trends are a matter of concern since they suggest that the willingness and perceived ability to address collective challenges collectively have waned. The analysis also suggests that governments’ social policies may have an important role to play alongside economic and health policies in coping with the pandemic.
Fear, whilst essential for survival, has the power to impair rational thinking. In tourism, fear can cease international travels. Previous studies demonstrated that cosmopolitan travellers are more resistant to irrational fear. This study aims to verify if cosmopolitans are more resistant to irrationality when facing the fear of COVID-19. Building on grounded theory, 64 in-depth interviews and direct observation, this study found that the cosmopolitan mindset, open-mindedness and strive for objectivity facilitates personal resilience, rational functioning in the face of fear. The study categorises travellers based on their resilience and suggests how to encourage each category amidst the threat of COVID-19.
While analysis of the impact of threatening events has moved from bit player to center stage in political science in recent decades, the phenomenon of pandemic threat is widely neglected in terms of a systematic research agenda. Tying together insights from the behavioral immune system hypothesis and standard political science models of emotional processing, we evaluate whether exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic threat is related to authoritarian attitudes and which emotions do the work. Using 12 samples with over 12,000 respondents from six European countries at two time points (2020 and 2021), we argue that pandemic threats can generate disgust, anger, and fear. Our analyses indicate that exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic threat particularly activates fear, which in turn is linked to authoritarian attitudes.
Behavioural immune system theory predicts that attitudes towards immigrants become more hostile during times of increased threat from pathogens, as pandemic threat triggers aversive emotional responses, which in turn foster outgroup hostility. We test this notion in the context of the current Covid-19 crisis. Combining both original individual-level survey data of around 6,000 European respondents during the second Corona wave in winter 2020/2021 and regional data of pandemic threat in a multilevel design, we show that Covid-19 pandemic threat exposure in 105 European regions is indeed associated with more negative attitudes towards immigrants. Moreover, hierarchical path models indicate that Covid-19-induced anger fosters anti-immigrant attitudes, while we find no evidence that disgust as a pivotal avoidance-oriented emotion is crucial. In contrast to conventional wisdom, individuals reacting with fear to the pandemic hold more immigrant-friendly orientations. Taken together, our results indicate that the behavioural immune system (BIS) appears as a compelling obstacle to inclusive orientations. However, our findings challenge the notion that every emotion triggered by the BIS translates the pandemic threat into negative attitudes towards immigrants.
Background: The aim of this study was to examine the factors predicting the acceptance of COVID 19 vaccines in West Africa, with a focus on Nigeria. Four (4) hypotheses were posed for this study. Methods: This study employed a descriptive method design. The sample size was comprised of 32,224 respondents, all Nigeria citizens. A multistage sampling technique was employed for the survey involving quantitative data. A questionnaire was used as the instrument for data collection. The data collected for this study were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics (t-test and ANOVA). Results: The findings of this study revealed that there is a significant difference in COVID-19 vaccine acceptance based on age F (9, 32214) = 812.114, P<0.05, ƞ2=0.1849; based on gender differences t = (32222) = -21.808, P<0.05; based on religion t = (32222) = --75.228, P<0.05; and based on income F (4, 32219) = 740.394, P<0.05, ƞ2=0.084. Conclusion: The findings of this study show that there is a significant relationship between age, gender, religion, income and the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines in Nigeria. The findings further show that men are more vaccine-hesitant than women; older people find it easier to accept vaccination; Christians are more likely to accept COVID-19 vaccines than people from other religions. It is therefore recommended that religious leaders should be well educated on the health benefit of the COVID-19 vaccination and that the government should put more effort into improving the economy of the country so that the individual income can improve.
Theory posits that situations of existential threat will enhance prosociality in general and particularly toward others perceived as belonging to the same group as the individual (parochial altruism). Yet, the global character of the COVID-19 pandemic may blur boundaries between ingroups and outgroups and engage altruism at a broader level. In an online experiment, participants from the U.S. and Italy chose whether to allocate a monetary bonus to a charity active in COVID-19 relief efforts at the local, national, or international level. The purpose was to address two important questions about charitable giving in this context: first, what influences the propensity to give, and second, how is charitable giving distributed across different levels of collective welfare? We found that personal exposure to COVID-19 increased donations relative to those not exposed, even as levels of environmental exposure (numbers of cases locally) had no effect. With respect to targets of giving, we found that donors predominantly benefitted the local level; donations toward country and world levels were half as large. Social identity was found to influence charity choice in both countries, although an experimental manipulation of identity salience did not have any direct effect.
This study aims to explore the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on tourists’ travel risk and management perceptions. Driven on the effect of the pandemic, we investigate tourists’ travel risk and management perceptions and its effect on society using a sample of 716 respondents. The data was collected through social media platforms using a representative sampling method and analyzed applying the PLS-SEM tool. The findings reveal that Covid-19 pandemic has greatly affected travel risk and management perceptions. Travel risk and management perception had a significant association with risk management, service delivery, transportation patterns, distribution channels, avoidance of overpopulated destinations, and hygiene and safety. The results also identified the mediating effect of travel risk and management perceptions. The finding of this study contributes to tourism crises and provides future research insights in the travel and tourism sector and response to change tourists’ travel risk and management perceptions in the post-covid recovery period.
Although the individualism–collectivism dimension is usually examined in a U.S. versus Asian context, there is variation within the United States. The authors created an eight-item index ranking states in terms of collectivist versus individualist tendencies. As predicted, collectivist tendencies were strongest in the Deep South, and individualist tendencies were strongest in the Mountain West and Great Plains. In Part 2, convergent validity for the index was obtained by showing that state collectivism scores predicted variation in individual attitudes, as measured by a national survey. In Part 3, the index was used to explore the relationship between individualism–collectivism and a variety of demographic, economic, cultural, and health-related variables. The index may be used to complement traditional measures of collectivism and individualism and may be of use to scholars seeking a construct to account for unique U.S. regional variation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The authors examine the hypothesis that the intelligence of the population is a major factor determining national differences in economic development. To test the hypothesis, national IQs were calculated for 81 nations and economic development measured by real Gross Domestic Product at Purchasing Power Parity for 1998. The correlation between the two is .733, indicating that 54 per cent of the variance in GDP is attributable to the IQs of the populations.
The behavioral avoidance of people with facial disfigurement is well documented, but its psychological basis is poorly understood. Based upon a disease avoidance account of stigmatization, we conducted the first empirical test of whether facial disfigurement-naevus flammeus (a port wine stain) here-can trigger the same set of emotional and behavioral responses as a contagious disease (influenza). Ninety-eight participants contacted props, which they had seen used either by a healthy confederate or by a confederate simulating medical conditions affecting the face-birthmark and influenza. Behavioral avoidance (e.g., willingness to handle the prop) and facial display of disgust were recorded across five levels of prop contact varying from no contact to contact with the mouth. Behavioral avoidance and disgust displays, especially with oral contact, were equivalent in the birthmark and influenza conditions, with both significantly exceeding reactions to the healthy confederate. These results support the theory that humans have an evolved predisposition to avoid individuals with disease signs, which is mediated by the emotion of disgust. This implicit avoidance occurs even when they know explicitly that such signs-the birthmark here-result from a noncontagious condition.
Recent studies suggest that pathogen-related factors may contribute to systematic variation in women's preferences for masculinity in men's faces. However, there is very little evidence for similar correlations between pathogen-related factors and women's preferences for masculinity in other domains (e.g., men's voices or bodies). Consequently, we conducted a series of studies to examine whether pathogen disgust (assessed using Tybur et al's Three Domains of Disgust Scale) predicts individual differences in women's preferences for masculine characteristics in men's voices, bodies, and faces. We also tested if pathogen disgust predicts individual differences in measures of women's actual mate choices in the same way. We observed positive correlations between women's pathogen disgust and their preferences for masculinity in men's voices (Study 1) and faces and bodies (Study 2). We also observed positive correlations between women's pathogen disgust and their masculinity ratings of both their current and ideal romantic partners (Study 3). Each of these correlations was independent of the possible effects of women's sexual and moral disgust. Together, these findings suggest that individual differences in pathogen disgust predict individual differences in women's masculinity preferences across multiple domains and may also predict individual differences in their actual mate choices.
Eusociality is characterised by overlapping adult generations, cooperative brood care, and more or less nonreproductive workers or helpers. The most extreme cases of eusocially are species with highly specialised, permanently sterile castes of workers and soldiers. This review begins with an evaluation of the various hypotheses proposed to explain the evolution of eusociality in Hymenoptera and Isoptera. A comparative analysis of preconditions that are important for the evolution of insect eusociality follows. Finally, the occurrence of these preconditions is surveyed among vertebrates as a test of their generality. The crucial preconditions are shown to be similar in eusocial insects and eusocial-like vertebrates, eg naked mole-rat Heterocephalus glaber. No single trait can explain the evolution of eusociality: 2 conditions crucial for the evolution of eusociality are parental care (including the defence and feeding of offspring in a nest or other protected cavity), and low success of young adults or solitary pairs that attempt to reproduce.-from Author
Several theories suggest that religion evolved because it enhanced group cooperation; those individuals who professed a common religious belief cooperated better and therefore enhanced their individual fitness. The present experiment tested this hypothesis by asking participants to assess personality characteristics of unknown individuals who either wore a cross pendant, a symbol of Christianity, or a plain chain, using the Evaluation Of Others Questionnaire (EOOQ). The results indicated that participants who scored high on the Doctrinal Orthodoxy subscale of the Religious Orientation Scales gave greater scores to those wearing the cross pendant on the Kindness/Morality subscale of the EOOQ. This result is consistent with others that reported greater cooperation in economic games. However, here, we show that there does not need to be a competitive environment in order to reveal the increased assessment of kindness and morality, suggesting a potential mechanism for the enhanced cooperation seen in the competitive economic games. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved)
In approximately 3.2% of bird species individuals regularly forgo the opportunity to breed independently and instead bree cooperatively with other conspecifics, either as non–reproductive ‘helpers’ or as co–breeders. The traditional explanatio for cooperative breeding is that the opportunities for breeding independently are limited owing to peculiar features of th specie's breeding ecology. However, it has proved remarkably difficult to find any common ecological correlates of cooperativ breeding in birds. This difficulty has led to the ‘life history hypothesis’, which suggests that the common feature of cooperativel breeding birds is their great longevity, rather than any particular feature of their breeding ecology. Here, we use a comparativ method to test the life history hypothesis by looking for correlations between life history variation and variation in th frequency of cooperative breeding. First, we find that cooperative breeding in birds is not randomly distributed, but concentrate in certain families, thus supporting the idea that there may be a common basis to cooperative breeding in birds. Second, increase in the level of cooperative breeding are strongly associated with decreases in annual adult mortality and modal clutch size.
Third, the proportion of cooperatively breeding species per family is correlated with a low family–typical value of annua mortality, suggesting that low mortality predisposes cooperative breeding rather than vice versa. Finally, the low rate o mortality typically found in cooperatively breeding species is associated with increasing sedentariness, lower latitudes and decreased environmental fluctuation. We suggest that low annual mortality is the key factor that predisposes avian lineage to cooperative breeding, then ecological changes, such as becoming sedentary, further slow population turnover and reduc opportunities for independent breeding. As the traditional explanation suggests, the breeding habitat of cooperatively breedin species is saturated, but this saturation is not owing to any peculiar feature of the breeding ecology of cooperative breeders.
Rather, the saturation arises because the local population turnover in these species is unusually slow, as predicted by th life history hypothesis.
Observational studies have suggested that with time, some diseases result in a characteristic odor emanating from different sources on the body of a sick individual. Evolutionarily, however, it would be more advantageous if the innate immune response were detectable by healthy individuals as a first line of defense against infection by various pathogens, to optimize avoidance of contagion. We activated the innate immune system in healthy individuals by injecting them with endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide). Within just a few hours, endotoxin-exposed individuals had a more aversive body odor relative to when they were exposed to a placebo. Moreover, this effect was statistically mediated by the individuals' level of immune activation. This chemosensory detection of the early innate immune response in humans represents the first experimental evidence that disease smells and supports the notion of a "behavioral immune response" that protects healthy individuals from sick ones by altering patterns of interpersonal contact.
The authors develop a conceptual model of how the congruence of political ideology and persuasive appeals enhances sustainable behaviors. In study 1, persuasive appeals consistent with individualizing and binding moral foundations were developed to enhance liberal and conservative recycling. In study 2, individualizing and binding appeals were tested on actual recycling behavior using a longitudinal field study to demonstrate the effectiveness of messages congruent with the moral foundations of liberals and conservatives. Study 3 demonstrated that enhanced fluency represents the underlying psychological process that mediates the relationship between message congruence and intentions. Moreover, study 3 established that spillover effects resulting from increased intentions to engage in sustainable disposition behavior enhance intentions to engage in sustainable acquisition and consumption behaviors. Finally, study 4 ruled out potential message confounds to demonstrate the robustness of the findings. Practical implications for marketers and public policy officials interested in increasing sustainable behaviors are offered.
It is hypothesized that human faces judged to be attractive by people possess two features-averageness and symmetry-that promoted adaptive mate selection in human evolutionary history by way of production of offspring with parasite resistance. Facial composites made by combining individual faces are judged to be attractive, and more attractive than the majority of individual faces. The composites possess both symmetry and averageness of features. Facial averageness may reflect high individual protein heterozygosity and thus an array of proteins to which parasites must adapt. Heterozygosity may be an important defense of long-lived hosts against parasites when it occurs in portions of the genome that do not code for the essential features of complex adaptations. In this case heterozygosity can create a hostile microenvironment for parasites without disrupting adaptation. Facial bilateral symmetry is hypothesized to affect positive beauty judgments because symmetry is a certification of overall phenotypic quality and developmental health, which may be importantly influenced by parasites. Certain secondary sexual traits are influenced by testosterone, a hormone that reduces immunocompetence. Symmetry and size of the secondary sexual traits of the face (e.g., cheek bones) are expected to correlate positively and advertise immunocompetence honestly and therefore to affect positive beauty judgments. Facial attractiveness is predicted to correlate with attractive, nonfacial secondary sexual traits; other predictions from the view that parasite-driven selection led to the evolution of psychological adaptations of human beauty perception are discussed. The view that human physical attractiveness and judgments about human physical attractiveness evolved in the context of parasite-driven selection leads to the hypothesis that both adults and children have a species-typical adaptation to the problem of identifying and favoring healthy individuals and avoiding parasite-susceptible individuals. It is proposed that this adaptation guides human decisions about nepotism and reciprocity in relation to physical attractiveness.
We examined the relationship between Individualism/Collectivism and generalized social trust across 31 European nations participating in the European Social Survey. Using multilevel regression analyses, the current study provides the first empirical investigation of the effects of cultural norms of Individualism/Collectivism on generalized social trust while accounting for individuals' own cultural orientations within the same analysis. The results provide clear support for Yamagishi and Yamagishi's (1994) emancipation theory of trust, showing a significant and positive relationship between Individualism/Collectivism and generalized social trust, over and above the effect of a country's political history of communism and ethnic heterogeneity. Having controlled for individual effects of Individualism/Collectivism it is clear that the results of the current analysis cannot be reduced to an individual-level explanation, but must be interpreted within the context of macrosocial processes. We conclude by discussing potential mechanisms that could explain why national individualism is more likely to foster trust among people than collectivism.
A recent stream of influential research suggests that the inclusion of behavioral genetic models can further inform our understanding of political preferences and behaviors. But it has often remained unclear what these models mean, or how they might matter for the broader discourse in the political science literature. The initial wave of behavioral genetic research focused on foundational discovery, and has begun to outline the basic properties of genetic influence on political traits, while a second wave of research has begun to link genetic findings to broader aspects of political behaviors. In the introduction to this special issue, we explicate how genes operate, the most common forms of behavioral genetic analyses, and their recent applications toward political behaviors. In so doing, we discuss what these findings mean for political science, and describe how best to interpret them. We note potential limitations of behavioral genetic approaches and remain cautious against the overextension of such models. The five articles that follow strive to move beyond discovery and focus more on the integration of behavioral genetic models with mainstream theories of political behavior to analyze problems of interest to political scientists.
An emerging literature has documented differences in values and behavioral practices (including conformity) between frontiers (areas that were more recently settled) and areas with a longer history of settlement. However, so far there have been few tests of which mechanisms might contribute to the maintenance of such regional differences. The present study provides the first test of the hypothesis that differences in pathogen prevalence might underlie this regional variation. Specifically, the relationship between frontier settlement, pathogen prevalence, and nonconformist voting was explored. Date of statehood, a proxy for recency of settlement, was positively correlated with votes for third-party candidates, and this relationship was partially mediated by pathogen prevalence. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Change over time in culture can appear among individuals and in cultural products such as song lyrics, television, and books. This analysis examines changes in pronoun use in the Google Books ngram database of 766,513 American books published 1960-2008. We hypothesize that pronoun use will reflect increasing individualism and decreasing collectivism in American culture. Consistent with this hypothesis, the use of first person plural pronouns (e.g., we, us) decreased 10% first person singular pronouns (I, me) increased 42%, and second person pronouns (you, your) quadrupled. These results complement previous research finding increases in individualistic traits among Americans.
The relationship between culture and language was examined across 39 languages spoken in 71 cultures. Correlations were computed across languages and cultures between the use of first- and second-person singular pronouns (e.g., "I" and "you") and global cultural dimensions such as Individualism, which were previously extracted in large-scale cross-cultural surveys. The personal pronouns were analyzed in terms of the number of first- and second-person singular pronouns and whether the pronouns can be dropped when used as the subject of a sentence in speech. Cultures with pronoun drop languages tended to be less Individualistic than those with nonpronoun drop languages. The number of personal pronouns correlated with some cultural dimensions that reflected different conceptions of the person. Personal deixis (person-indexing pronouns) may provide a window through which cultural practices can be investigated.
Previous research has indicated that females are more likely than males to endorse collectivistic values and religious conservatism. The present research investigated an evolutionary explanation for these sex differences. More specifically, the sex differences in social conservatism may be due to variation in the behavioral immune system (BIS). The BIS is a set of psychological mechanisms that are proposed to be evolved solutions to disease threat. Four studies were conducted to examine this evolutionary explanation. In Study 1, BIS measures (e.g., disgust sensitivity) fully mediated sex differences in collectivism. This effect was specific to sexual disgust (Study 2). In Studies 3 and 4, the effect was extended to other forms of social conservatism (i.e., religious conservatism) and measures of the BIS. Together, these results suggest that sex differences in collectivism and religious conservatism may be explained in part by sex differences in the BIS.
Examines the implications of one species affecting another species via the impact of a parasite or pathogen borne in common. Protection against pathogenic parasites may be achieved, primarily by preempting resources by more benign parasitic species. Other forms of protection involve physical barriers or antibiotics generated by symbionts. Parasites can mediate in the exploitation of resources. Evolutionary implications are discussed, eg selection pressures acting on host-parasite interactions, diversification and speciation mediated by parasites, and metabolic and genetic integration with parasites. -P.J.Jarvis
Dispersal ability has been hypothesized to reduce intraspecific differentiation by homogenizing populations. On the other hand, long-distance dispersers may have better opportunities to colonize novel habitats, which could result in population divergence. Using direct estimates of natal and breeding dispersal distances, we investigated the relationship between dispersal distances and: (i) population differentiation, assessed as subspecies richness; (ii) ecological plasticity, assessed as the number of habitats used for breeding; and (iii) wing size, assessed as wing length. The number of subspecies was negatively correlated with dispersal distances. This was the case also after correcting for potential confounding factors such as migration and similarity due to common ancestry. Dispersal was not a good predictor of ecological plasticity, suggesting that long-distance dispersers do not have more opportunities to colonize novel habitats. Residual wing length was related to natal dispersal, but only for sedentary species. Overall, these results suggest that dispersal can have a homogenizing effect on populations and that low dispersal ability might promote speciation.
Determining what percentage of a given society believes in God - or doesn't - is fraught with methodological hurdles. First: low response rates; most people do not respond to surveys, and response rates of lower than 50 percent cannot be generalized to the wider society. Second: nonrandom samples. If the sample is not randomly selected - that is, every member of the given population has an equal chance of being chosen - it is nongeneralizable. Third: adverse political/cultural climates. In totalitarian countries where atheism is governmentally promulgated and risks are present for citizens viewed as disloyal, individuals will be reluctant to admit that they do believe in God. Conversely, in societies where religion is enforced by the government and risks are present for citizens viewed as nonbelievers, individuals will be reluctant to admit that they don't believe in Allah, regardless of whether anonymity is “guaranteed. ” Even in democratic societies without governmental coercion, individuals often feel that it is necessary to say that are religious, simply because such a response is socially desirable or culturally appropriate. For example, the designation “atheist ” is stigmatized in many societies; even when people directly claim to not believe in God, they still eschew the self-designation of “atheist. ”
Americans' health improved dramatically over the 20th century. Public health programs for disease and injury prevention were responsible for much of this advance. Over the century, America's public health system grew dramatically in scientific expertise and political authority. As the disease burden of the old scourges of infection, infant mortality, and dietary deficiencies began to lift, public health's mandate expanded to take on new health threats, such as those resulting from a changing workplace, the rise of the automobile and chronic conditions caused by smoking, diet, and other lifestyle and environmental factors. Public health's successes become part of everyday life, a fact already apparent early in the last century, when C. E. A. Winslow noted that the lives saved and healthy years extended were the "silent victories" of public health. In its exploration of ten major public health issues addressed in the 20th century, this book traces the discoveries, practices, and programs in ten areas of pubic health-infection disease control, vaccination, food safety, maternal and infant health, nutrition, occupational health, family planning, oral health, vehicular safety, cardiovascular disease prevention, and tobacco control-coupled with chapters highlighting key issues or conflicts that shaped public health action. The book concludes with a look toward the future challenges for public health.
This study investigated the relationship between culture, structural aspects of the nuclear and extended family, and functional aspects of the family, that is, emotional distance, social interaction, and communication, as well as geographical proximity. The focus was on the functional aspects of family, defined as members of the nuclear family (mother, father, and their children) and the extended family (grandmother/grandfather, aunt/uncle, cousins). Sixteen cultures participated in this study, with a total number of 2587 participants. The first hypothesis, that the pattern of scores on the psychological measures and the behavioral outcomes are similar across cultures, an indication of cultural universality, was supported. The second hypothesis, that functional relations between members of the nuclear family and their kin are maintained in high-affluent and low-affluent cultures, and that differences in functional relationships in high-and low-affluent cultures are a matter of degree, was also supported by the findings. The results suggest that it is less meaningful in cross-cultural family studies to ask questions about the structure of the family, than to ask about the functional relationships between members of the nuclear family and their kin. In looking only at the nuclear family, one focuses only on those residing in the household, but ignores those important members of the extended family who may reside nearby and their significant relationships with the members of the nuclear family.
Although outlawed in many states, serpent handling remains an active religious practice-and one that is far more stereotyped than understood. Ralph W. Hood, Jr. and W. Paul Williamson have spent fifteen years touring serpent-handling churches in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, and West Virginia, conducting scores of interviews with serpent handlers, and witnessing hundreds of serpent-handling services. In this illuminating book they present the most in-depth, comprehensive study of serpent handling to date. Them That Believe not only explores facets of this religious practice-including handling, preaching, and the near-death experiences of individuals who were bitten but survived-but also provides a rich analysis of this phenomenon from historical, social, religious, and psychological perspectives.
It is well accepted that disgust is an emotion whose main function is to motivate away from cues of disease or potential contamination. Although this adaptive problem is one that both men and women face, women tend to have heightened disgust sensitivity and higher frequency of psychopathologies like obsessive-compulsive disorder that have heightened disgust sensitivity as a core symptom. Women have faced unique selection pressures such as pregnancy, changes in immunity over the menstrual cycle, higher obligate parental investment, and heavier disease burden from sexually transmitted infection that have contributed to their increased disgust sensitivity compared to men. First, this chapter outlines the development of a theoretical framework around the evolution and function of disgust. Next, it reviews sex differences in disgust sensitivity as well as the modulation of disgust sensitivity. Finally, sexual disgust and recent work investigating how disgust and sexual arousal reciprocally influence one another are reviewed including the contribution of disgust to sexual disorders and expression.