Behavioral avoidance of contagion in childhood

Using Storybooks to Teach Children About Illness Transmission and Promote Adaptive Health Behavior – A Pilot Study

“…While our age range was generally in line with similar storybook learning and contagion knowledge research, we did not have a large-enough sample size to explore age-related differences. However, previous research has reported that knowledge, and not age, is the best predictor of children's illness avoidance behavior; indeed, even the youngest children in Blacker and LoBue's (2016) sample avoided a sick confederate if they had causal knowledge about illness transmission (Blacker and LoBue, 2016). However, further exploring the developmental trajectory across early childhood is an important goal for future research.…”

“…However, the best predictor of children's avoidance behavior was not age but, instead, was their ability to make predictions about illness outcomes. In other words, even 4-and 5-year-olds avoided contact with the sick confederate if they had causal knowledge about illness transmission (Blacker and LoBue, 2016).…”

“…We then assessed children's knowledge about illness transmission and whether they displayed behavioral avoidance of a contaminated toy in a forced-choice task. We chose to focus on preschoolaged children (ages 3-5) because children of this age have not yet begun formal schooling, have a limited understanding of contagion (e.g., Bibace and Walsh, 1981;Perrin and Gerrity, 1981), and do not spontaneously avoid contact with potentially contaminated objects (Blacker and LoBue, 2016). Thus, preschool-aged children should perform poorly in a baseline assessment of contagion knowledge and have substantial room for learning.…”

Social identity and contamination: Young children are more willing to eat native contaminated foods

“…For example, preschoolers demonstrate evidence of naïve biological theories that highlight differences between living and nonliving things ( Hatano & Inagaki, 2013 ) and have some understanding that illness is a biological process that is related the presence of germs ( Kalish, 1996 , Solomon and Cassimatis, 1999 ) and unfolds over time ( Raman & Gelman, 2007 ). Children use cues of illness when making social decisions; by 5 years of age, children report social preferences for people who are physically clean rather than dirty ( Rottman et al, 2020 ) and avoid playing with a person who appears to be sick ( Blacker & LoBue, 2016 ). Indeed, children’s understanding of germs predicts their ability to avoid someone who might be sick ( Blacker & LoBue, 2016 ), suggesting that children who demonstrate knowledge about contamination may have more effective behavioral avoidance.…”

“…Children use cues of illness when making social decisions; by 5 years of age, children report social preferences for people who are physically clean rather than dirty ( Rottman et al, 2020 ) and avoid playing with a person who appears to be sick ( Blacker & LoBue, 2016 ). Indeed, children’s understanding of germs predicts their ability to avoid someone who might be sick ( Blacker & LoBue, 2016 ), suggesting that children who demonstrate knowledge about contamination may have more effective behavioral avoidance.…”