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

ORIGINAL RESEARCH published: 28 July 2016 doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01038 Distrust As a Disease Avoidance Strategy: Individual Differences in Disgust Sensitivity Regulate Generalized Social Trust Lene Aarøe *, Mathias Osmundsen and Michael Bang Petersen Political Science, Aarhus University, Aarhus C, Denmark 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 Edited by: of individual differences in pathogen disgust sensitivity on generalized social trust. We Michaela Porubanova, Farmingdale State College, USA furthermore compare the effects of pathogen disgust sensitivity on generalized social Reviewed by: trust and outgroup prejudice and explore whether generalized social trust to some extent Ryan Brown, constitutes a pathway between pathogen avoidance motivations and prejudice. University of Oklahoma, USA Martin Lang, Keywords: pathogen avoidance motivation, disgust sensitivity, trust, evolution, outgroup prejudice, generalized University of Connecticut, USA social trust, behavioral immune system, ideology *Correspondence: Lene Aarøe [email protected] INTRODUCTION Specialty section: One of the deadliest threats that humans have faced over the course of the evolutionary history This article was submitted to of the species is the threat from pathogens. Defending against pathogens has shaped human Cognitive Science, physiology in multiple ways, one of the most obvious being the existence of the immune system. a section of the journal Importantly, however, research in psychology has recently demonstrated that the need to avoid Frontiers in Psychology pathogens has not only shaped human physiology but also human psychology (e.g., Schaller and Received: 31 December 2015 Park, 2011; Schaller and Neuberg, 2012; Tybur et al., 2013). More specifically, it has been argued that Accepted: 24 June 2016 the human immune system has a psychological or behavioral component, designed to demotivate Published: 28 July 2016 people from engaging in behavior that would increase the likelihood of infections (e.g., Schaller, Citation: 2006). This so-called “behavioral immune system” works, at least in part, through the emotion of Aarøe L, Osmundsen M and disgust and elicits disgust in the face of potential pathogenic contaminators, such as feces and rotten Petersen MB (2016) Distrust As a food (e.g., Schaller and Park, 2011; Schaller and Neuberg, 2012; Tybur et al., 2013). Disease Avoidance Strategy: Individual Differences in Disgust For humans, one particularly powerful pathogen vector is other humans. Conspecifics are the Sensitivity Regulate Generalized Social species of larger size with which we interact the most and most intimately; pathogens that infect Trust. Front. Psychol. 7:1038. fellow humans are by definition dangerous to the human self; and many pathogens have a number doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01038 of dedicated adaptations specifically designed for human-to-human transmission. While contact Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 1 July 2016 | Volume 7 | Article 1038 Aarøe et al. Distrust As a Disease-Avoidance Strategy with other humans provides opportunities for increased fitness broadly (including ingroup members) as, for example, reflected through social plus-sum games such as cooperation, other in lower levels of generalized social trust. humans constitute at the same time a fundamental danger from The argument in the existing literature that outgroups are a pathogen avoidance perspective. Hence, when trade-offs are a key target of pathogen avoidance motivations builds on made about whether to engage with others, pathogen avoidance the notion of immunization and how immunization toward motivations should motivate people to engage less rather than specific pathogens is acquired through exposure to them (as more. In this article, we therefore investigate the effects of utilized in vaccination programs). If individuals from other pathogen avoidance motivations on one of the broadest and most groups have a different pathogen ecology than the self’s group, fundamental measures of social perception: generalized social this means that inter-group contact would expose the self to trust. pathogens for which the self may have no immunity. This Generalized social trust is the willingness to trust others— is potentially lethal, as demonstrated by the Spanish conquest including those we do not know (Putnam, 2000). It is a of the Americas, where some 90% of the native population psychological heuristic that “provides a solution to the problems was killed by a smallpox epidemic brought overseas by the caused by social uncertainty” (Yamagishi and Yamagishi, 1994, Spanish conquistadors (Diamond, 1997). Existing research has p. 131; see also Petersen and Aarøe, 2015). More specifically, highlighted this prominent case (e.g., Faulkner et al., 2004) and, generalized social trust can be defined as “the belief that others if such instances have been recurrent over human evolutionary will not deliberately or knowingly do us harm, if they can history, the behavioral immune system might have evolved by avoid it, and will look after our interests, if this is possible” natural selection in order to activate social avoidance motivations (Delhey and Newton, 2005, p. 311). Generalized social trust is specifically toward people from other groups. a stable individual difference that influences social behavior in The problem is, however, that instances such as the conquest a range of contexts, including collective action and cooperation of the Americas are unlikely to have been recurrent with any (e.g., Uslaner, 2002), the provision of public goods (Sønderskov, high frequency over human evolutionary history. Firstly, the 2009), and investments in local communities (Putnam, 2000). low ancestral migration rates—because our ancestors traveled Importantly, generalized social trust promotes social contact by foot for the vast majority of evolutionary history—make of a particular type. It is different from trust in individuals the classical model an unlikely model of recurrent between- with whom we are familiar, such as family (Uslaner, 2002). group contact (Kurzban et al., 2001). Secondly, while one study Instead, generalized social trust tracks trust and engagement demonstrates variation in immunization within short distances in “weak social ties”—that is, the people within an individuals’ in the Amazonas, as pointed out in the study, this is only found extended social network—and is typically linked in modern for modern, highly infectious diseases that most likely have societies to membership of and engagement in associations, evolved recently (Black, 1975). Third and finally, the argument clubs, and communities (Putnam, 2000; Uslaner, 2002; see also that outgroup pathogens are particularly dangerous can be Granovetter, 1973 for further discussion of the concept of weak turned fully on its head: the adaptation of pathogens to local social ties). environments could imply that they are less lethal for people Here, we focus on whether individual differences in outside of that environment, including members of other groups generalized social trust reflect individual differences in the (de Barra and Curtis, 2012). activation of the behavioral immune system. Hence, due to a Instead, we suggest that individual differences in pathogen combination of situational, developmental, and genetic factors, avoidance motivations reflect self-oriented trade-offs about the people differ in their degree of activation of the behavioral pros and cons of contact with others such that those who immune system and the resulting feelings of disgust. Some people are motivated by pathogen avoidance are less likely to seek are simply more “disgust sensitive” (e.g., Schaller and Park, 2011; out cooperative plus-sum games more broadly rather than Schaller and Neuberg, 2012; Tybur et al., 2013). Are they also specifically avoiding outgroup members. In modern society, more likely to avoid engaging with others as reflected in a lower cooperative plus-sum games can easily be established without level of generalized social trust? any form of physical contact using information technology. While past research has investigated the effects of individual Nevertheless, human pathogen avoidance psychology can differences in pathogen avoidance motivations on social be expected to have acquired its design under ancestral, perceptions, we part in a fundamental way with the focus of evolutionarily recurrent conditions before the advent of modern this past research. It has previously been demonstrated that technologies. To understand how this psychology exactly should higher levels of pathogen avoidance motivations predict more shape social avoidance, we must therefore attend to the details of negative perceptions of groups of people that can be construed

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