Explaining illness with evil: pathogen prevalence fosters moral vitalism

Abstract

Pathogens represent a significant threat to human health leading to the emergence of strategies designed to help manage their negative impact. We examined how spiritual beliefs developed to explain and predict the devastating effects of pathogens and spread of infectious disease. Analysis of existing data in studies 1 and 2 suggests that moral vitalism (beliefs about spiritual forces of evil) is higher in geographical regions characterized by historical higher levels of pathogens. Furthermore, drawing on a sample of 3140 participants from 28 countries in study 3, we found that historical higher levels of pathogens were associated with stronger endorsement of moral vitalistic beliefs. Furthermore, endorsement of moral vitalistic beliefs statistically mediated the previously reported relationship between pathogen prevalence and conservative ideologies, suggesting these beliefs reinforce behavioural strategies which function to prevent infection. We conclude that moral vitalism may be adaptive: by emphasizing concerns over contagion, it provided an explanatory model that enabled human groups to reduce rates of contagious disease.

Measurement invariance of the moral vitalism scale across 28 cultural groups

“…underscoring the cross-cultural validity of the scale [11]. Interestingly, the lower levels of moral vitalism tended to coincide with the larger confidence interval of the estimate.…”

“…As a formal theory, moral vitalism reflects a basic form of cognition (belief) that is likely universal and probably arose as an explanation for life threatening events, such as disease in contexts where other (i.e., more scientific) explanations were not available (see [11]). From this perspective, moral vitalism is perhaps most closely aligned with the purity dimension of moral foundations theory, given a similar emphasis on concerns regarding purity and contagion, and links to concerns over biological disease ( [7,12]).…”

“…The theory and measurement of moral vitalism provides exciting and novel avenues for cross-cultural research. For example, [11] showed in a cross-national study that historically higher levels of pathogen prevalence were positively associated with the endorsement of moral vitalistic beliefs. Other social ecological factors could also be explored, such as the prevalence and frequency of natural disasters, because they may equally be related to the development of moral vitalism as a cultural meaning-making belief system.…”

Infection threat shapes our social instincts

“…Even though nearly our entire evolution took place before we found out about germs, the idea of contagion shapes folk beliefs nonetheless. It is revelatory that the sooner we feel disgusted, the more we are prone to believe in evil spirits which can take possession of us, most notably if we get too close to those who are possessed already (Bastian et al 2019 ). Similar beliefs form part of many organized religions and may involve angels, demons, or the devil.…”

Contempt Speech and Hate Speech: Characteristics, Determinants and Consequences

“…The feeling of danger generates the need to find a scapegoat, leads to radicalisation and builds a social hierarchy (Kossowska, Szumowska, Szwed, 2018;Nycz, Obrębska, 2020). Germs also change the way of thinking about morality (Bastian et al, 2019). In the countries with a lower threat of pathogens, in general, people regard as immoral doing harm to others and unfair distribution of wealth.…”