Human threat management systems: Self-protection and disease avoidance

Abstract

Humans likely evolved precautionary systems designed to minimize the threats to reproductive fitness posed by highly interdependent ultrasociality. A review of research on the self-protection and disease avoidance systems reveals that each system is functionally distinct and domainspecific: Each is attuned to different cues; engages different emotions, inferences, and behavioral inclinations; and is rooted in somewhat different neurobiological substrates. These systems share important features, however. Each system is functionally coherent, in that perceptual, affective, cognitive, and behavioral processes work in concert to reduce fitness costs of potential threats. Each system is biased in a risk-averse manner, erring toward precautionary responses even when available cues only heuristically imply threat. And each system is functionally flexible, being highly sensitive to specific ecological and dispositional cues that signal greater vulnerability to the relevant threat. These features characterize a general template useful for understanding not only the self-protection and disease avoidance systems, but also a broader set of evolved, domainspecific precautionary systems. Key Words/PhrasesSelf-Protection; Disease Avoidance; Threat Management; Precautionary Psychology; Evolutionary Psychology; Domain Specificity; Fear; Disgust; Prejudice; Stigma; Social Cognition; Motivation; Error ManagementIn the second half of the 20 th century, cognitive scientists made great progress by thinking of the brain in computational terms. Although the brain is indeed an information-processing device, it is not a mere computer. Rather than being designed by engineers to process information in a dispassionate manner, the human brain has been designed by natural selection to be something of a motivational device to promote adaptive behavioral responses to critical challenges directly related to survival and reproductive fitness. The result is not only a great number of cognitive and behavioral mechanisms for efficiently and effectively

Prejudice towards gay men and a need for physical cleansing

“…Thus, homosexuals as a group may be construed as health threat. Groups perceived as health threat are avoided, disliked, or excluded as a function of the atavistic behavioral immune system (e.g., Neuberg et al, 2011;Schaller & Neuberg, 2012;Schaller & Park, 2011 Moreover, people may want to clean after imagined contact with a homosexual man not only to avoid disease but also to prevent moral contamination. Although hygienic behaviors are among the most basic in the repertoire of behavioral reactions to protect against physical contamination, for humans, the social and cultural environment is an additional and particularly relevant domain in which contamination can take place.…”

“…Therefore, natural selection has produced a behavioral immune system that comprises psychological and social mechanisms that facilitate the detection and avoidance of pathogens. In human societies, such evolved reactions are assumed to play a role in avoidance of people who are seen as a health threat, for instance because they bear atypical appearances or are unfamiliar and may therefore carry new germs or engage in practices that challenge hygienic and health standards of the in-group (e.g., Curtis et al, 2011;Neuberg, Kenrick, & Schaller, 2011;Schaller & Neuberg, 2011;Schaller & Park, 2011). This approach suggests that prejudice towards homosexuals may be expressed as the need for cleansing based on an atavistic mechanism aiming at reducing actual, physical contamination by germs because homosexuals are either seen as different and unfamiliar or because they are associated with the stigma of a disease (e.g., Herek et al, 2003).…”

The political left rolls with the good and the political right confronts the bad: connecting physiology and cognition to preferences

“…As mentioned above, from an evolutionary standpoint, this pattern makes sense since aversive stimuli can do harm and therefore merit more attention than stimuli that seem pleasant and probably harmless [26]. There is also a main effect of collage type (F ¼ 34.04, p , 0.01), as an increase in the number of aversive images led to differences in dwell time for the various image types, as also indicated by a significant image type  collage type interaction (F ¼ 21.36, p , 0.01).…”

“…Human emotion encompasses a wide array of discrete affective states, including fear, anger, sadness and happiness, and each of these affective states activates unique neurophysiological pathways and politically relevant issue attitudes. To take one example, Neuberg et al [26] detail the differences between the self-protection and disease-avoidance systems, with the former closely tied to threat responses and the latter to disgust. Each seems to engage different emotions, inferences and behavioural tendencies, and there is obvious value in studying responses to particular categories of stimuli seriatim.…”

Loneliness Makes Consumers Avoid Unsafe Food

“…Therefore, lonely consumers are more likely to be subject to infectious illness [33]. Furthermore, consumers who have poorer immune statuses and have recently been ill would activate the behavior immune system that work to help them detect cues connoting infectious pathogens and then exhibit avoidance behaviors [34]. When presented with potentially unsafe food, lonely consumers might quickly detect the infectious cues in the food such as Salmonella and food-borne parasites.…”