Can you catch Ebola from a stork bite? Inductive reasoning influences generalization of perceived zoonosis risk

Abstract

Emerging zoonoses are a prominent global health threat. Human beliefs are central to drivers of emerging zoonoses, yet little is known about how people make inferences about risk in such scenarios. We present an inductive account of zoonosis risk perception, suggesting that beliefs about the range of animals able to transmit diseases to each other influence how people generalize risks to other animals and health behaviors. Consistent with our account, in Study 1, we find that participants who endorse higher likelihoods of cross-species disease transmission have stronger intentions to report animal bites. In Study 2, using real-world descriptions of Ebola virus from the WHO and CDC, we find that communications conveying a broader range of animals as susceptible to the virus increase intentions to report animal bites and decrease perceived safety of wild game meat. These results suggest that inductive reasoning principles may be harnessed to modulate zoonosis risk perception and combat emerging infectious diseases.

The double bind of communicating about zoonotic origins: Describing exotic animal sources of COVID-19 increases both healthy and discriminatory avoidance behaviors

“…Nonetheless, people behave as if origin matters. Previous studies on Ebola risk perception in largely non-affected populations show that descriptions emphasizing specific zoonotic origins were sufficient to increase risk perceptions and intentions to engage in disease avoidance behaviors (Davis et al, 2017). Risk perceptions associated with Ebola also positively correlated with xenophobic tendencies, including greater prejudice toward West Africans and undocumented immigrants, more support for restrictive travel policies, as well as general ethnocentrism (Kim et al, 2016).…”

“…The potential origins of COVID-19 described by news sources and public health organizations like the CDC (2020),WHO (2020), and NFID (2020) early in the pandemic were diverse, and included information about coronavirus susceptibility in both exotic (e.g., snakes, bats, pangolins) and more familiar food sources (e.g., cattle, pigs). Conveying diverse animals as potential sources of zoonotic infection is known to increase subsequent risk perception and intentions to engage in disease avoidance behaviors, such as avoiding animals as potential disease reservoirs (Davis et al, 2017;Tapp et al, 2017).…”

Guidelines for communicating about bats to prevent persecution in the time of COVID-19

“…Communicating the health risks posed by zoonoses is paramount to protecting human populations and mitigating the spread of the disease (Decker et al, 2012;Quinn et al, 2014). Yet, information (and misinformation) about zoonoses and their suspected animal hosts can potentially impact the public's perception about a given taxa (Davis et al, 2017). Ongoing news coverage, for example, repeatedly linking wildlife to a particular zoonotic disease, can fuel animosity towards a given species (or set of species), and in extreme cases, erode societal support for conservation or even fuel direct persecution of known or suspected disease reservoirs (Buttke et al, 2015;Guyton and Brook, 2015).…”

“…Insights from human psychology can be used to carefully design messages that result in better outcomes for public health and conservation (Davis et al, 2017;Lu et al, 2016). Although several previous authors have already discussed some of the pitfalls and challenges associated with message framing of wildlife-disease associations (e.g.…”

Knowledge, practice and perception of human-marsupial interactions in health promotion

“…The interaction between Didelphis species and humans can occur through hunting for meat consumption or obtaining therapeutic products, being a cultural habit found in traditional communities in Brazil [15,17]. Studies of knowledge, perception and practices have helped to understand sociocultural factors involving exposure to zoonotic pathogens, which may contribute to preventive measures development [18][19][20][21]. In addition, social sciences study area increases knowledge of socially constructed behavior and concepts based on beliefs and experiences, and it characterizes local ecological factors and creates hypotheses for diseases emergence hotspots [18,[22][23].…”