Introversion and human-contaminant disgust sensitivity predict personal space

Park, Justin H.

doi:10.1016/j.paid.2015.03.030

Cited by 25 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…But we predict that wariness of people in general is a core output of the behavioral immune system and argue that this ought to be the first-order prediction about how pathogen avoidance motivations influence social cognition. To our knowledge, only one study has investigated a corollary hypothesis and identified a positive correlation among humans between individual differences in disgust sensitivity and the need for larger personal spaces in interpersonal interactions (Park, 2015 ). This interesting finding is aligned with the argument advanced here but leaves unexamined whether high pathogen avoidance motivation not only motivates people to avoid interactions with outgroups but prompts them to avoid others in general.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distrust As a Disease Avoidance Strategy: Individual Differences in Disgust Sensitivity Regulate Generalized Social Trust

2016

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Throughout human evolutionary history, cooperative contact with others has been fundamental for human survival. At the same time, social contact has been a source of threats. In this article, we focus on one particular viable threat, communicable disease, and investigate how motivations to avoid pathogens influence people's propensity to interact and cooperate with others, as measured by individual differences in generalized social trust. While extant studies on pathogen avoidance have argued that such motivations should prompt people to avoid interactions with outgroups specifically, we argue that these motivations should prompt people to avoid others more broadly. Empirically, we utilize two convenience samples and a large nationally representative sample of US citizens to demonstrate the existence of a robust and replicable effect of individual differences in pathogen disgust sensitivity on generalized social trust. We furthermore compare the effects of pathogen disgust sensitivity on generalized social trust and outgroup prejudice and explore whether generalized social trust to some extent constitutes a pathway between pathogen avoidance motivations and prejudice.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distrust As a Disease Avoidance Strategy: Individual Differences in Disgust Sensitivity Regulate Generalized Social Trust

2016

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“…Auditory and tactile senses are also impacted by behavioral immune responses: Visual disease primes increase tactile sensitivity, and lead to perceptions of individuals with foreign accents as more distant, especially for participants scoring higher in disgust sensitivity (Reid et al, 2012; Hunt et al, 2017). Human-specific disgust sensitivity also predicts people’s preferred amount of personal space (Park, 2015).…”

Section: Physiological Foundations Of the Behavioral Immune Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

PsychoBehavioroimmunology: Connecting the Behavioral Immune System to Its Physiological Foundations

2019

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Although infectious disease has posed a significant and persistent threat to human survival and welfare throughout history, only recently have the psychological and behavioral implications of disease threat become a topic of research within the behavioral sciences. This growing body of work has revealed a suite of affective and cognitive processes that motivate the avoidance of disease-causing objects and situations—a cascade of processes loosely conceptualized as a “behavioral immune system (BIS).” Recent BIS research has linked disease threat to a surprisingly broad set of psychological and behavioral phenomena. However, research examining how the BIS is nested within our broader physiology is only beginning to emerge. Here, we review research that has begun to elucidate the physiological foundations of the BIS—at the levels of sensory modalities, cells, and genes. We also discuss the future of this work.

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“…In the second study, we used the stop-distance task with a higher ecological validity. The chosen distance to the approaching experimenter was on average 1.05 m. Thus, PS sizes determined by means of the bubble task and the stop-distance task were very similar, but considerably higher than the preferred distance by adults (M ¼ 0.42 m) as reported by Park (2015). Since PS size is correlated with the status, authority, and age of the approaching person, this finding seems plausible.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

Disgust Proneness and Personal Space in Children

Schienle

Schwab

2019

Evol Psychol

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Individuals vary in their personal space (PS) size as reflected by the preferred distance to another person during social interactions. A previous study with adults showed that pathogen-relevant disgust proneness (DP) predicted PS magnitude. The present study investigated whether this association between DP and PS already exists in 8- to 12-year-old children (144 girls, 101 boys). The children answered a disgust questionnaire with the two trait dimensions “core disgust (contact with spoiled food and poor hygiene) and “death-relevant disgust” (imagined contact with dead and dying organisms). PS magnitude was assessed with a paper–pencil measure (drawing a PS bubble; Experiment 1) or with the stop-distance task (preferred distance to an approaching woman or man; Experiment 2). In both experiments, only death-related disgust predicted PS magnitude and only if the approaching person was male. The current study questions the relevance of pathogen-related disgust in children for regulating interpersonal distance.

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Introversion and human-contaminant disgust sensitivity predict personal space

Cited by 25 publications

References 22 publications

Distrust As a Disease Avoidance Strategy: Individual Differences in Disgust Sensitivity Regulate Generalized Social Trust

Distrust As a Disease Avoidance Strategy: Individual Differences in Disgust Sensitivity Regulate Generalized Social Trust

PsychoBehavioroimmunology: Connecting the Behavioral Immune System to Its Physiological Foundations

Disgust Proneness and Personal Space in Children

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