Testing the motivational tradeoffs between pathogen avoidance and status acquisition

Abstract

To reduce disease transmission through interpersonal contact, humans have evolved a behavioral immune system that facilitates identification and avoidance of pathogens. One behavioral strategy in response to pathogenic threat is the adoption of interpersonal reticence. However, reticence may impede status acquisition. This program of research tested whether activating pathogen-avoidant motives through priming fosters reticence related to status, namely disinterest in pursuing a group leadership position (Study 1) or disinterest in accepting a group leadership position bestowed onto them (Study 2). Individuals high in germ aversion were particularly interested in pursuing leadership as a form of status, with disease salience unexpectedly heightening status motives among those low in germ aversion. Furthermore, those high in perceived infectability reported reluctance for high-status positions, although disease salience heightened interest in accepting such positions. We contextualize findings by identifying dispositional and situational factors that foster individuals to invoke motivational tradeoffs.

Crowd Salience Heightens Tolerance to Healthy Facial Features

“…Crowding-primed participants’ greater negative affect prompted us to consider whether results were influenced by feelings of crowding or affect. This possibility led us to include affect as a covariate in this model to determine the unique role of crowd salience independent of the changes in affect that could influence interpersonal decision-making (see Brown & Sacco, 2020 ). 3…”

“…These restrictive behaviors further include adoption of collectivistic values in regions with heightened pathogen loads (Fincher et al, 2008 ), greater valuation of conformity within the corresponding countries (Murray, Trudeau, & Schaller, 2011 ; Wu & Chang, 2012 ), and interest in authoritarian governance (Murray, Schaller, & Suedfeld, 2013 ). Both chronic and acute concerns of disease further foster interpersonal reticence (Brown & Sacco, 2016 ; Mortensen et al, 2010 ; Tybur et al, 2020 ), aversion to physical contact with others (Brown & Sacco, 2020 ; Brown, Young, & Sacco, 2021 ; Makhanova & Shepherd, 2020 ; Sawada, Auger, & Lydon, 2018 ), and downregulated affiliative motives to reduce the physical contact necessary for disease transmission (Sacco, Young, & Hugenberg, 2014 ).…”

Using psychological science to support social distancing: Tradeoffs between affiliation and disease‐avoidance motivations

“…Previous research suggests disease salience fosters a greater interest in conformity and proclivity for normative influence, which is argued to be due to the increased infection risk inherent in non‐normative behavior (Murray & Schaller, 2012; Murray et al., 2011). Disease salience could similarly heighten interest in adhering to social norms designed to reduce such infection risks in the context of a pandemic and may also be encouraging individuals to enforce social norms related to disease avoidance, such as mask‐wearing or handwashing (Brown & Sacco, 2020). Exact designs of norm‐based interventions will need specification, but the unique insight gained from considering motivation tradeoffs is that belongingness motives can be leveraged to increase disease‐avoidance behaviors.…”

Testing the Disgust-Based Mechanism of Homonegative Attitudes in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The scale consists of 15 statements rated by respondents on a 7-point scale (from 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree). Some researchers investigating the role of perceived vulnerability to disease analyzed the general index of PVD (Faulkner et al, 2004), while others analyzed the subscales separately (Smith, 2012;Brown and Sacco, 2020). As the subscales emphasize different aspects of perceived vulnerability (germ aversion is more emotion-based, while perceived infectability is more cognitive-based), we decided to investigate the role of GA and PI separately.…”