I see sick people: Beliefs about sensory detection of infectious disease are largely consistent across cultures
Joshua Ackerman, Theodore Samore, Daniel M. T. Fessler, Tom R. Kupfer, Soyeon Choi, Wilson N. Merrell, Lene Aarøe, Toivo Aavik, Stephen Acabado, Grace Akello, Ilham N. Alfian, Laith Al-Shawaf, Marinés M. Alvarez, Jeanine Ammann, Gizem Arikan, Saiyeda A. Asha, Anibal M. Astobiza, Pat Barclay, Fiona Kate Barlow, Lisiane Bizarro, Paola Bressan, Andrés Castellanos-Chacón, Bryan K. C. Choy, Achmad Chusairi, Brenda L. Chávez Cosamelón, Jorge Contreras-Garduño, Mallika De, Tiago J.S. de Lima, Angelica N. Oliveira, Piyanjali de Zoysa, Ieva Dryžaitė, Christian T. Elbæk, Peter Fedor, Ana Maria Fernandez, Márta Fülöp, Vladimer Lado Gamsakhurdia, Leonor Garcia-Gómez, Leonel Garcia-Marques, Jimena Garduño-Franco, María del Pilar Grazioso, Fanny Habacht, Youssef Hasan, Camila P. Haugestad, Christian P. Haugestad, Jan Havlíček, Earl J. Hernandez, Vu M. Hoang, Minsung Hong, Ivana Hromatko, Dzintra Iliško, Hirotaka Imada, Ivana Jakšić, Tomasz Jarmakowski-Kostrzanowski, Harpa L. Hjördísar Jónsdóttir, Kotrina Kajokaite, Šárka Kaňková, Nicolas Kervyn, Jinseok P. Kim, Jonas R. Kunst, Michael Laakasuo, Juan David Leongómez, Norman Li, Junsong Lu, Nathan Lynch, María A. Maegli, Harry Manley, Gabriela Marcu, Thea McAfee, Panagiotis Mitkidis, Regina Fernandez-Morales, Colby Morvinski, Haslina Muhamad, Molnár B. Nándor, Pegah Nejat, Bernardo Costa-Neves, Hoang Nguyen Huy, Mats J. Olsson, Charity N. Onyishi, Ike E. Onyishi, Reegan Orozco, Tobias Otterbring, Ida S. Ottersen, Gustavo Pacheco-López, Penny Panagiotopoulou, Walter Paniagua, Roksana Parvin, Zoran Pavlović, Pavol Prokop, Emma Raffman, Muhammad Rizwan, Sheila Rojas, Joanna Różycka-Tran, Oscar R. Sánchez, Heyla Selim, Barış Sevi, Yaniv Shani, Madhulika S. Shastry, Stefan Stieger, Eunkook M. Suh, Melati Sumari, Kosuke Takemura, Arnaud Tognetti, Joshua Tybur, Eylul B. Ucak, Yukiko Uchida, Carmen G. Baeza-Ugarte, Jaroslava V. Valentova, Hugo Viciana, Amandine Visine, Jin Wang, Xiaotian Wang, Illia I. Yahiiaiev, Roberta Z. R. Trombetta, Rizqy A. Zein, Iris Žeželj
Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 128
Resumen
Identifying interpersonal disease threats is critical for effectively tracking and defending against infection. People hold lay beliefs about the types of sensory information that are most relevant for identifying whether others are sick with contagious illnesses. Are these beliefs universal, or do they vary along cultural dimensions linked with pathogen hazards? Participants in 58 countries (N = 19,217) judged how effective, and how likely they were to use, cues involving the major sensory modalities of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. Across countries, belief patterns were strongly consistent, suggesting a largely universal conceptualization of the role of sensory information for interpersonal disease detection. Results also support a safe senses hypothesis, with perceivers reporting that they would use senses that function at a distance—and thus reduce pathogen transmission risk—more than would be expected based on perceivers’ beliefs regarding the respective efficacy of those senses. Where cultural variation did emerge, this was captured by a cohesive set of socio-ecological factors, including human development, latitude, pathogen prevalence, and population density. Together, these findings reveal a shared lens through which contagious disease is assessed, one that prioritizes minimizing harm to perceivers, and may offer leverage for designing interventions to improve public health.
Integrantes de CODEC
Juan David Leongómez
Profesor Titular
- Líder CODEC
- Investigador EvoCo
- Director MetaCiencia
