Given the persistent threat posed by infectious disease throughout human history, people have a sophisticated suite of cognitive and behavioral strategies designed to mitigate exposure to disease vectors. Previous research suggests that one such strategy is avoidance of unfamiliar outgroup members. We thus examined the relationship between dispositional worry about disease and support for COVID-19-related travel bans across three preregistered studies ( N = 764) conducted at the outset of the pandemic in the United States and Singapore. Americans higher in Perceived Infectability were more supportive of travel bans, whereas Singaporeans higher in Germ Aversion were more supportive of travel bans. In Study 2 , priming saliency of the pandemic increased support for travel bans from high (but not low) pandemic-risk countries. This prime did not increase general xenophobia. These results are consistent with threat-specific perspectives of outgroup avoidance, and provide an ecologically-valid test of the implications of perceived disease threat for policy-related attitudes and decision-making. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40806-021-00283-z.

How does disease threat influence sexual attitudes and behaviors? Although research on the influence of disease threat on social behavior has grown considerably, the relationship between perceived disease threat and sexual attitudes remains unclear. The current preregistered study (analyzed N = 510), investigated how experimental reminders of disease threat influence attitudes and anticipated future behaviors pertaining to short-term sexual relationships, using an ecologically valid disease prime. The central preregistered prediction was that experimental manipulation of disease threat would lead to less favorable attitudes and inclinations toward sexual promiscuity. Results were consistent with this preregistered prediction, relative to both a neutral control condition and a non-disease threat condition. These experimental results were buttressed by the finding that dispositional variation in worry about disease threat predicted less favorable attitudes and inclinations toward short-term sexual relationships. This study represents the first preregistered investigation of the implications of acute disease threat for sexual attitudes.

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This research investigated how a couple's discrepancy in attractiveness influences men's decision to mate poach or mate copy. The participants (N ϭ 97 heterosexual men) were presented with 3 photos of a quasi couple in which the woman was consistent, and the 3 men were unattractive, equally, or more attractive than her. This study used ranking questions to assess heterosexual men's perception of a couple.Participants were asked to drag and drop the 3 randomized photos in order of preference for 8 randomized questions regarding mate poaching and mate copying. Eight Friedman tests were conducted and revealed a significant difference between the rankings of the photos for each situation. These findings suggest that there are clear differences between the conditional mating strategies men use. Results revealed that when a woman is more attractive than her mate, men desire to mate poach, and if a woman is less attractive than her partner, men desire to mate copy. Public Significance StatementThis study suggests that straight men base their decision to steal a woman away from their partner for a short-term affair if the man with whom the woman is mated is unattractive. However, men will want to hook up with a woman if she is in a relationship with a more attractive man.

Differences in attitudes on social issues such as abortion, immigration and sex are hugely divisive, and understanding their origins is among the most important tasks facing human behavioural sciences. Despite the clear psychological importance of parenthood and the motivation to provide care for children, researchers have only recently begun investigating their influence on social and political attitudes. Because socially conservative values ostensibly prioritize safety, stability and family values, we hypothesized that being more invested in parental care might make socially conservative policies more appealing. Studies 1 (preregistered; n = 376) and 2 ( n = 1924) find novel evidence of conditional experimental effects of a parenthood prime, such that people who engaged strongly with a childcare manipulation showed an increase in social conservatism. Studies 3 ( n = 2610, novel data from 10 countries) and 4 ( n = 426 444, World Values Survey data) find evidence that both parenthood and parental care motivation are associated with increased social conservatism around the globe. Further, most of the positive association globally between age and social conservatism is accounted for by parenthood. These findings support the hypothesis that parenthood and parental care motivation increase social conservatism.

This research investigated how the effects of a discrepancy in the attractiveness of the members of a couple and how long the couple has been in the relationship effect poaching decisions. Heterosexual men (N = 222) saw a photo where the man was more attractive than the woman, both were equally attractive, or the woman was more attractive than the man. Accompanying the photos were three different descriptions regarding the couple's relationship duration (2 months, 4 years, or 8 years). Items were then presented regarding the attractiveness of the couple and poaching attempts. The 2-month couple, where the woman is more attractive than the man, was expected to be more likely to be selected for poaching of the woman. Also, attractiveness discrepancy and relationship duration main effects were expected where, in general, the couple where the woman is more attractive than the man would be more likely to be a mate poaching target, and long-duration couples, were expected to be less likely to be mate poaching targets. Results revealed that, contrary to prior survey research on mate poaching, when a couple is equal in attractiveness and when the woman is more attractive than the man, participants indicate they would have more success poaching the woman in the couple.

Masks and other non-pharmaceutical interventions can complement vaccines and treatments as a part of multilayered mitigation to reduce the burden of COVID-19 in high-risk settings like surges. Although N95s provide greater protection than cloth and procedure masks against airborne infectious illnesses, few people used N95s historically, potentially due to lack of familiarity and cost. The study was designed to examine the feasibility of distributing N95s during a COVID-19 surge. A follow-up survey summarized mask behavior. The investigators aimed to distribute 2,500 N95s to 500 adults in 5-packs with informational handouts at community locations during the COVID-19 Omicron BA.1 surge in New Orleans, Louisiana. A 1-month follow-up survey assessed utilization, safety perceptions, social diffusion of awareness of N95s, and purchase intentions. The investigators successfully distributed all 2,500 N95s during the peak of the BA.1 surge (December 13, 2021 to January 17, 2022). At 1-month follow-up, 96.7% of participants had tried an N95. They utilized an average of 3.42 (68.4%) of the five N95s, felt safer wearing N95s (Ps < 0.0001), discussed N95s with others (80.4%), and would wear N95s again if free (87.9%). Future utilization intentions were price sensitive. Communities will readily use public health tools like N95s when at risk and offered for free with useful information. Cost was identified as a key barrier to sustained utilization. Findings have immediate public policy implications for reducing national, regional, and organizational surges. The research provides an illustrative example of the importance of behavioral science in responding to public health crises.

Schmitt and Buss (2001)