Definition
Behavioral disease-avoidance processes help animals maintain safe distances from sources of contagious disease, thereby reducing the need for physiological immune responses.
Introduction
Threats to survival have been a major driving force in evolution, shaping a wide range of specialized defensive adaptations. Some of the threats come in the form of the many hazards in the physical environment. Other, perhaps more potent threats come in the form of exploitation by other organisms. Predators are an obvious example, as are other members of the species competing for limited resources. Although less conspicuous than typical predators, tiny organisms that infiltrate larger organisms and cause somatic damage have posed a recurrent and pernicious threat. These tiny organisms include microbes such as viruses, bacteria, and protozoa, as well as relatively larger organisms such...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
References
Case, T. I., Repacholi, B. M., & Stevenson, R. J. (2006). My baby doesn’t smell as bad as yours: The plasticity of disgust. Evolution and Human Behavior, 27, 357–365.
Clark, W. R. (2008). defense of self: How the immune system really works. New York: Oxford University Press.
Clark, J. A., & Fessler, D. M. T. (2014). Recontextualizing the behavioral immune system within psychoneuroimmunology. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, 8, 235–243.
Curtis, V. (2013). Don’t look, don’t touch: The science behind revulsion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Darwin, C. R. (1872). The expression of the emotions in man and animals. London: John Murray.
Duncan, L. A., Schaller, M., & Park, J. H. (2009). Perceived vulnerability to disease: Development and validation of a 15-item self-report instrument. Personality and Individual Differences, 47, 541–546.
Faulkner, J., Schaller, M., Park, J. H., & Duncan, L. A. (2004). Evolved disease-avoidance mechanisms and contemporary xenophobic attitudes. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 7, 333–353.
Gangestad, S. W., & Buss, D. M. (1993). Pathogen prevalence and human mate preferences. Ethology and Sociobiology, 14, 89–96.
Gangestad, S. W., & Grebe, N. M. (2014). Pathogen avoidance within an integrated immune system: Multiple components with distinct costs and benefits. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, 8, 226–234.
Gelfand, M. J., Raver, J. L., Nishii, L., Leslie, L. M., Lun, J., Lim, B. C., et al. (2011). Differences between tight and loose cultures: A 33-nation study. Science, 332, 1100–1104.
Goodall, J. (1986). Social rejection, exclusion, and shunning among the Gombe chimpanzees. Ethology and Sociobiology, 7, 227–236.
Hart, B. L. (2011). Behavioural defences in animals against pathogens and parasites: Parallels with the pillars of medicine in humans. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 366, 3406–3417.
Haselton, M. G., & Nettle, D. (2006). The paranoid optimist: An integrative evolutionary model of cognitive biases. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10, 47–66.
Kavaliers, M., Choleris, E., & Pfaff, D. W. (2005). Recognition and avoidance of the odors of parasitized conspecifics and predators: Differential genomic correlates. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 29, 1347–1359.
Kurzban, R., & Leary, M. R. (2001). Evolutionary origins of stigmatization: The functions of social exclusion. Psychological Bulletin, 127, 187–208.
Miller, S. L., & Maner, J. K. (2012). Overperceiving disease cues: The basic cognition of the behavioral immune system. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102, 1198–1213.
Mortensen, C. R., Becker, D. V., Ackerman, J. M., Neuberg, S. L., & Kenrick, D. T. (2010). Infection breeds reticence: The effects of disease salience on self-perceptions of personality and behavioral avoidance tendencies. Psychological Science, 21, 440–447.
Murray, D. R., & Schaller, M. (2016). The behavioral immune system: Implications for social cognition, social interaction, and social influence. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 53, 75–129.
Navarrete, C. D., & Fessler, D. M. T. (2006). Disease avoidance and ethnocentrism: The effects of disease vulnerability and disgust sensitivity on intergroup attitudes. Evolution and Human Behavior, 27, 270–282.
Oaten, M., Stevenson, R. J., & Case, T. I. (2009). Disgust as a disease-avoidance mechanism. Psychological Bulletin, 135, 303–321.
Oaten, M., Stevenson, R. J., & Case, T. I. (2011). Disease avoidance as a functional basis for stigmatization. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 366, 3433–3452.
Park, J. H., & Isherwood, E. (2011). Effects of concerns about pathogens on conservatism and anti-fat prejudice: Are they mediated by moral intuitions? Journal of Social Psychology, 151, 391–394.
Park, J. H., Van Leeuwen, F., & Stephen, I. D. (2012). Homeliness is in the disgust sensitivity of the beholder: Relatively unattractive faces appear especially unattractive to individuals higher in pathogen disgust. Evolution and Human Behavior, 33, 569–577.
Pinker, S. (1997). How the mind works. New York: Norton.
Pollet, T. V., Tybur, J. M., Frankenhuis, W. E., & Rickard, I. J. (2014). What can cross-cultural correlations teach us about human nature? Human Nature, 25, 410–429.
Ryan, S., Oaten, M., Stevenson, R. J., & Case, T. I. (2012). Facial disfigurement is treated like an infectious disease. Evolution and Human Behavior, 33, 639–646.
Schaller, M., & Park, J. H. (2011). The behavioral immune system (and why it matters). Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20, 99–103.
Terrizzi, J. A., Jr., Shook, N. J., & McDaniel, M. A. (2013). The behavioral immune system and social conservatism: A meta-analysis. Evolution and Human Behavior, 34, 99–108.
Tybur, J. M., Lieberman, D., Kurzban, R., & DeScioli, P. (2013). Disgust: Evolved function and structure. Psychological Review, 120, 65–84.
Van Leeuwen, F., Park, J. H., Koenig, B. L., & Graham, J. (2012). Regional variation in pathogen prevalence predicts endorsement of group-focused moral concerns. Evolution and Human Behavior, 33, 429–437.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Park, J.H. (2018). Disease Avoidance. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2971-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2971-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences