The behavioural immune system and the psychology of human sociality
Open accessAbstract
Because immunological defence against pathogens is costly and merely reactive, human anti-pathogen defence is also characterized by proactive behavioural mechanisms that inhibit contact with pathogens in the first place. This behavioural immune system comprises psychological processes that infer infection risk from perceptual cues, and that respond to these perceptual cues through the activation of aversive emotions, cognitions and behavioural impulses. These processes are engaged flexibly, producing context-contingent variation in the nature and magnitude of aversive responses. These processes have important implications for human social cognition and social behaviour-including implications for social gregariousness, person perception, intergroup prejudice, mate preferences, sexual behaviour and conformity. Empirical evidence bearing on these many implications is reviewed and discussed. This review also identifies important directions for future research on the human behavioural immune system--including the need for enquiry into underlying mechanisms, additional behavioural consequences and implications for human health and well-being.
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This relationship is consistent with a wide range of additional evidence indicating that individuals are sensitive to disease-connoting cues within their immediate environment, and respond to these cues with functionally adaptive shifts in cognition and behavior.
“This relationship is consistent with a wide range of additional evidence indicating that individuals are sensitive to disease-connoting cues within their immediate environment, and respond to these cues with functionally adaptive shifts in cognition and behavior [58], [59].”
From Pathogens and Politics: Further Evidence That Parasite Prevalence Predicts Authoritarianism (2013) · cites this paper as [59]
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- Authors
- Schaller, M.
- Affiliations
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Schaller, Mark
- ORCID
- Schaller, Mark
- Venue
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Published
- 2011-12-12
- Volume
- 366
- Issue
- 1583
- Pages
- 3418-3426
- ISSN
- 0962-8436 (ISSN-L)
- 1471-2970
- PMC
- PMC3189350
- OpenAlex
- W2129076711
- Cited by
- 441
- References
- 64
- Citations by year
- 2026: 34 · 2025: 33 · 2024: 38 · 2023: 41 · 2022: 55 · 2021: 75 · 2020: 32 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 21 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 26 · 2013: 14 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 1.91
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Keywords
- behavioural immune system, perceived infection risk, aversive emotions, pathogen avoidance, social cognition, person perception, intergroup prejudice, mate preferences, sexual behavior, conformity, human sociality
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Communicable Diseases, Humans, Immune System, Social Behavior, Disease Transmission, Infectious
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