The DOI matches its Crossref record; 57 of the 59 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Evolved Disease-Avoidance Mechanisms and Contemporary Xenophobic Attitudes
Abstract
From evolutionary psychological reasoning, we derived the hypothesis that chronic and contextually aroused feelings of vulnerability to disease motivate negative reactions to foreign peoples. The hypothesis was tested and supported across four correlational studies: chronic disease worries predicted implicit cognitions associating foreign outgroups with danger, and also predicted less positive attitudes toward foreign (but not familiar) immigrant groups. The hypothesis also received support in two experiments in which the salience of contagious disease was manipulated: participants under high disease-salience conditions expressed less positive attitudes toward foreign (but not familiar) immigrants and were more likely to endorse policies that would favor the immigration of familiar rather than foreign peoples. These results reveal a previously under-explored influence on xenophobic attitudes, and suggest interesting linkages between evolved disease-avoidance mechanisms and contemporary social cognition.
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“Faulkner et al. (2004) and Navarrete and Fessler (2006) provide evidence, based on numerous and diverse Western samples, that scores among individuals on scales that measure the degree of xenophobia and ethnocentrism correspond to chronic individual differences in perceived vulnerability to infectious disease”
From Parasite-stress promotes in-group assortative sociality: The cases of strong family ties and heightened religiosity (2012) · cites this paper as Faulkner et al. 2004
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“This research also shows that xenophobia and ethnocentrism within individuals increases under experimental primes of greater disease salience in the current environment.”
From Parasite-stress promotes in-group assortative sociality: The cases of strong family ties and heightened religiosity (2012) · cites this paper as Faulkner et al. 2004
In the citing paper
“individuals who are—or who merely perceive themselves to be—more vulnerable to infection tend to endorse more xenophobic and ethnocentric attitudes [21], [22], [23].”
From Pathogens and Politics: Further Evidence That Parasite Prevalence Predicts Authoritarianism (2013) · cites this paper as [21]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Faulkner, J., Schaller, M., Park, J. H., & Duncan, L. A.
- Affiliations
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Faulkner, Jason
- Venue
- Group Processes & Intergroup Relations
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2004-10
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 333-353
- ISSN
- 1368-4302 (ISSN-L)
- 1461-7188
- OpenAlex
- W2114038289
- Cited by
- 845
- References
- 59
- Citations by year
- 2026: 27 · 2025: 26 · 2024: 55 · 2023: 71 · 2022: 101 · 2021: 133 · 2020: 78 · 2019: 35 · 2018: 35 · 2017: 31 · 2016: 31 · 2015: 36 · 2014: 44 · 2013: 25 · 2012: 27
- FWCI
- 17.66
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Group Processes & Intergroup Relations (publishedVersion)
- Explore Bristol Research (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
- Keywords
- xenophobia, xenophobic attitudes, disease avoidance, evolved psychological mechanisms, outgroup threat, implicit cognition, attitudes toward immigrants, immigration policy attitudes, social cognition, intergroup relations
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