Risk of parasite transmission influences perceived vulnerability to disease and perceived danger of disease-relevant animals

Visual attention is not attuned to non-human animal targets' pathogenicity: an evolutionary mismatch perspective

A considerable amount of research has revealed that there exists an evolutionary mismatch between ancestral environments and conditions following the rise of agriculture regarding the contact between humans and animal reservoirs of infectious diseases. Based on this evolutionary mismatch framework, we examined whether visual attention exhibits adaptive attunement toward animal targets' pathogenicity. Consistent with our predictions, faces bearing heuristic infection cues held attention to a greater extent than did animal vectors of zoonotic infectious diseases. Moreover, the results indicated that attention showed a specialized vigilance toward processing facial cues connoting the presence of infectious diseases, whereas it was allocated comparably between animal disease vectors and disease-irrelevant animals. On the other hand, the pathogen salience manipulation employed to amplify the participants' contextual-level anti-pathogen motives did not moderate the selective allocation of attentional resources. The fact that visual attention seems poorly equipped to detect and encode animals' zoonotic transmission risk supports the idea that our evolved disease avoidance mechanisms might have limited effectiveness in combating global outbreaks originating from zoonotic emerging infectious diseases.

Perceived vulnerability for Lyme disease questionnaire: A social science tool for understanding tick-borne disease attitudes

Lyme disease has emerged as a growing epidemic across the U.S., with tick populations spreading north because of a plethora of human-induced factors. As the scope of this problem grows, there is a need to understand how vulnerable the public perceives themselves to be and how perceived vulnerability as a psychological construct influences public behavior. A growing body of literature has explored individual risk perceptions and individual preventative behaviors toward Lyme disease, but there remains a notable research gap regarding the concept of vulnerability. This empirical study establishes the first questionnaire for perceived vulnerability towards Lyme disease, modified from pre-existing infectious disease literature. This novel instrument was tested and compared with individual factors relating to preventative behaviors and source credibility of major information sources about Lyme disease in the state of Maine. Recent increases in black-legged tick (Ixodes scapularis) populations have affected the state of Maine in dramatic ways. This research specifically surveyed homeowners to explore their perceived vulnerability, source credibility, and individual protective intentions related to ticks and Lyme disease in Maine. Results from this study validate a modified perceived vulnerability scale for Lyme disease and highlight how understanding the relationships between these perceptions of vulnerability, individual behaviors, and sources of information can improve outreach and communication efforts about tick-borne diseases.

Perceived Stress and Perceived Vulnerability at Healthcare Workers during Covid-19 Pandemic

Objective:This study evaluated the psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare workers (HCWs) and determined several risk factors.. Methods: An online cross-sectional survey was administered to 244 HCWs recruited via the Google Docs platform. The 36-item questionnaire comprised three domains: demographic details, the Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS-10), and the Perceived Vulnerability to Disease Questionnaire (PVDQ).Multiple linear regression analysis was used to determine the risk factors for adverse psychological responses. Results:Overall, 244 HCWs aged between 20 and 60 years old participated in the survey and the mean scores for perceived stress (PS), perceived infectability (PI), and germ aversion (GA) were 20.15, 28.83 and 47.78, respectively. Additionally, they were positively associated with gender. Females’ score on PS (p=0.001), PI (p=0.017), and GA were also significantly higher than men (p=0.001).Scores on PSS-10 showed a significant difference between age groups (p=0.010) in contrast to GA (p=0.515) or PI (p=0.346).The regression model showed that the PI scores were higher among men (B=3.145) than among women (p=0.019).The analysis showed significant effects working during COVID-19 on PI scores (B=3.101; p=0.006).Furthermore, GA was also significantly related to worsening of the COVID-19 pandemic (B=2.73; p=0.004) and was higher among females (B=4.622; p<0.001). Conclusion:According to the results of the study, gender, age, professional experience and knowledge, and working during a pandemic were important factors for PS and PVD. Additionally, supporting the mental health for HCWs obtaining adequate support and taking precautions are essential.

What Makes Spiders Frightening and Disgusting to People?

The quality of human-animal interactions may crucially influence conservation efforts. Unfortunately, and despite their important roles in the functioning of the ecosystem, some animals are considered notoriously unpopular. Using the forced-choice paradigm, we investigated which cues humans perceive as frightening and disgusting in spiders, one of the most unpleasant animals in the world. The research was carried out with a representative sample of N = 1,015 Slovak adults. We found that perceived fear and disgust of spiders were triggered predominantly by enlarged chelicerae, enlarged abdomen, and the presence of body hair. Longer legs were associated with perceived fear as well; however, the presence of two eyes did not produce any statistical significance in terms of fear. We hope that further research in this field, where additional cues can be manipulated (e.g., color and number of legs), will improve conservation efforts by using an improved reputation of spiders in the eyes of the general public.

The Effect of Animal Bipedal Posture on Perceived Cuteness, Fear, and Willingness to Protect Them

Human–animal relationships have long been the subject of controversy because they are shaped by several cultural, inter-individual, and evolutionary factors. Understanding these relationships, however, is important to optimize conservation efforts. There is agreement that perceived similarity between animals and humans is associated with more positive attitudes. The human–animal similarity could be caused by phylogenetic closeness. We hypothesized that the bipedal posture of an animal may be perceived as a cue of phenotypic similarity with humans. We examined this topic by comparing perceived cuteness, fear, and willingness to protect animals differing in body posture, body size, and phylogenetic closeness with humans on a sample of N = 349 Slovak participants. We found that the bipedal posture enhanced perceived cuteness, but this effect was most pronounced in small-bodied animals, particularly those with direct eye contact. Phylogenetically close and small-bodied species (e.g., small mammals) received greater conservation support than phylogenetically distant species (e.g., invertebrates). However, anthropomorphic-looking animals received greater conservation support, suggesting that pictures of animals that more closely resemble humans can be used in conservation campaigns.

A dataset for the perceived vulnerability to disease scale in Japan before the spread of COVID-19

The COVID-19 outbreak is a worldwide medical and epidemiological catastrophe, and the number of psychological studies concerning COVID-19 is growing daily. Such studies need baseline data from before the COVID-19 outbreak for comparison, but such datasets have not yet been accumulated and shared. Here, we provide a dataset on the perceived vulnerability to disease scale for 1382 Japanese participants obtained through an online survey conducted in 2018 that will be useful for comparison with current or post-COVID-19 perceived vulnerability to disease data.

A dataset for the perceived vulnerability to disease scale in Japan before the spread of COVID-19

The COVID-19 outbreak is a worldwide medical and epidemiological catastrophe, and the number of psychological studies concerning COVID-19 is growing daily. Such studies need baseline data from before the COVID-19 outbreak for comparison, but such datasets have not yet been accumulated and shared. Here, we provide a dataset on the perceived vulnerability to disease scale for 1382 Japanese participants obtained through an online survey conducted in 2018 that will be useful for comparison with current or post-COVID-19 perceived vulnerability to disease data.

Ectoparasite defence in humans: relationships to pathogen avoidance and clinical implications

Currently, disgust is regarded as the main adaptation for defence against pathogens and parasites in humans. Disgust's motivational and behavioural features, including withdrawal, nausea, appetite suppression and the urge to vomit, defend effectively against ingesting or touching sources of pathogens. However, ectoparasites do not attack their hosts via ingestion, but rather actively attach themselves to the body surface. Accordingly, by itself, disgust offers limited defence against ectoparasites. We propose that, like non-human animals, humans have a distinct ectoparasite defence system that includes cutaneous sensory mechanisms, itch-generation mechanisms and grooming behaviours. The existence of adaptations for ectoparasite defence is supported by abundant evidence from non-human animals, as well as more recent evidence concerning human responses to ectoparasite cues. Several clinical disorders may be dysfunctions of the ectoparasite defence system, including some that are pathologies of grooming, such as skin picking and trichotillomania, and others, such as delusory parasitosis and trypophobia, which are pathologies of ectoparasite detection. We conclude that future research should explore both distinctions between, and overlap across, ectoparasite defence systems and pathogen avoidance systems, as doing so will not only illuminate proximate motivational systems, including disgust, but may also reveal important clinical and social consequences.This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Evolution of pathogen and parasite avoidance behaviours'.

Fear and Disgust of Spiders: Factors that Limit University Preservice Middle School Science Teachers

Spiders perform many essential ecological services, yet humans often experience negative emotions toward spiders. These emotions can lead to the avoidance of beneficial events. These emotions may affect beliefs about what should or should not be included in a science curriculum. This study investigated how activities with living spiders affected preservice middle school science teachers' emotions and beliefs. Prior to the activities both groups (i.e., treatment and control) had moderate to extreme fear and disgust toward the spider. The teachers that participated in the spider activities (i.e., treatment group) had much lower levels of fear and disgust after performing the spider activities than the control group that did not participate in the spider activities. The control group continued to have elevated levels of fear and disgust toward the spider throughout the study. Before the spider activities neither group planned to incorporate information about spiders or information about the essential ecological services of spiders into their science classroom. After the treatment group participated in the spider activities, the teachers had definitive plans to teach their students about spiders and the essential ecological services that they provide. The control group remained unchanged and had no plans to teach this information to their students.

Predictors of perceived vulnerability to cancer diagnoses among adult Black males

As much as the significance of age, education, masculinity, illness attitude, and self-esteem to preventive health have been reported, much less is known on how these factors predict perceived vulnerability to cancer diagnosis. This study aimed to determine the association between identified demographic, health, and social factors and perceived vulnerability to cancer diagnosis among adult Black males. Data reveal that incidences of cancer among Black men are contingent upon a myriad of psychological, social, and behavioral factors that are not exclusive but rather coexisting determinants of health.

[Development of a Japanese version of the Perceived Vulnerability to Disease Scale]

This study developed a Japanese version of the Perceived Vulnerability to Disease (PVD) scale. Analysis of the data from Japanese university students (N = 435) replicated the two-factor structure of the original scale: one factor that assessed beliefs about one's own susceptibility to infectious diseases (perceived infectability) and the other factor that assessed emotional discomfort in contexts that connoted an especially high potential for pathogen transmission (germ aversion). Tests of reliability and validity for each subscale indicated overall promising results. It would appear that the results reflect at least in part an evolutionary adaptive psychological mechanism for the ancestral environment.

Is a woman's preference for chest hair in men influenced by parasite threat?

Humans (Homo sapiens) are unique primates due to a lack of a thermally insulating fur covering, typical of all other primates. Our primary goal was to examine the "ectoparasite avoidance mediated by mate choice hypothesis" suggesting that women prefer men lacking chest hair in order to avoid ectoparasite loads. We predicted that women living in areas with high prevalence of pathogens (n = 161) would be less likely to show a preference for a male with chest hair in comparison with women living in areas with low pathogen prevalence (n = 183). We found that overall preference for man chest hair was low, but there were no significant associations between perceived vulnerability to diseases or disgust sensitivity and preference of men who have had experimentally removed chest hair. Women who lived in an environment with a high parasite prevalence rate (Turkey) showed a similar preference for man chest hair as did women from an environment with low parasite prevalence (Slovakia). The participants biological fathers' chest hair had no significant effect on their preference for men with chest hair. Women living in a high-parasite-prevalence environment reported a higher disgust score in the sexual domain and more recent experiences with illnesses, suggesting that parasites influence sensitivity to sexual disgust. These results provide no support for the ectoparasite avoidance hypothesis mediated by mate choice and suggest that shaved men bodies are preferred more by women.

Self-Protection Versus Disease Avoidance

Predators and pathogens are powerful natural selection tools that influence the evolution of two domain-specific management systems: self-protection and disease avoidance. Both systems are activated by specific ecological conditions and protect humans against physical harm or disease transmission. The perception of predators is associated with fear, and the perception of disease-relevant animals is associated with disgust. Fear of predators negatively correlated with the perceived physical condition of participants, suggesting that the self-protection system is activated particularly in people who are more vulnerable to predation threat. People vulnerable to infectious diseases rated predators as more dangerous, suggesting that the disease-avoidance system activates behavior-reducing contact with harmful animals. Females had a higher score in terms of fear, disgust, and perceived danger in particular when considering animals that pose physical harm and/or a disease threat. Our results support the adaptation view, suggesting that the self-protection and disease-avoidance systems are domain specific, and that both have been shaped by natural selection in order to protect humans against harmful animals or events.

Parasite-stress promotes in-group assortative sociality: the cases of strong family ties and heightened religiosity

Throughout the world people differ in the magnitude with which they value strong family ties or heightened religiosity. We propose that this cross-cultural variation is a result of a contingent psychological adaptation that facilitates in-group assortative sociality in the face of high levels of parasite-stress while devaluing in-group assortative sociality in areas with low levels of parasite-stress. This is because in-group assortative sociality is more important for the avoidance of infection from novel parasites and for the management of infection in regions with high levels of parasite-stress compared with regions of low infectious disease stress. We examined this hypothesis by testing the predictions that there would be a positive association between parasite-stress and strength of family ties or religiosity. We conducted this study by comparing among nations and among states in the United States of America. We found for both the international and the interstate analyses that in-group assortative sociality was positively associated with parasite-stress. This was true when controlling for potentially confounding factors such as human freedom and economic development. The findings support the parasite-stress theory of sociality, that is, the proposal that parasite-stress is central to the evolution of social life in humans and other animals.

The Effect of Owning Animals on Perceived Vulnerability to, and Avoidance of, Parasitic Diseases in Humans

The evolutionary history of humans has always been influenced by pathogens because of their ability to cause both morbidity and mortality. Natural selection should favor behavioral strategies that minimize disease transmission and consequently increase human survival. Collectively such strategies are referred to as the behavioral immune system, which is thought to be more often activated in individuals with an impaired immune system who are most vulnerable to pathogens and infectious diseases. We investigated the associations between an individual’s perceived vulnerability to disease, whether they own any animals, and whether they carry out behavioral tactics to avoid parasite transmission. A sample of 285 Slovakian students participated in a questionnaire study. As predicted, antipathogen behavior was activated in individuals with a high perceived vulnerability to disease. Females showed higher antiparasitic scores than males especially when behaviors were most likely to transmit disease. Individuals who owned animals perceived themselves as less vulnerable to disease as well as less vulnerable to the perceptions of those who did not own any animals. Moreover, among animal owners scores for parasite-avoiding behaviors relevant to being in close contact with an animal (such as removing animal feces and worming animals) were higher than for parasite-transmitting behaviors relevant to being in close contact with an animal (such as allowing animals to lick). We discuss the results, further taking into account both the model of natural selection and the coevolutionary arms race model.