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Disease-avoidance processes and stigmatization: cues of substandard health arouse heightened discomfort with physical
Justin H Park1, Florian van Leeuwen, Ypapanti Chochorelou
1University of Bristol, School of Experimental Psychology, 12a Priory Rd., Bristol BS8 1TU, UK. j.h.park@bristol.ac.uk
Abstract:
An evolutionary approach to stigmatization suggests that disease-avoidance processes contribute to some instances of social exclusion. Disease-avoidance processes are over-inclusive, targeting even non-threatening individuals who display cues of substandard health. We investigated whether such cues motivate avoidance of physical contact in particular. In Studies 1 and 2, targets with disease (e.g., leprosy) or atypical morphologies (e.g., amputated leg, obesity) were found to arouse differentially heightened discomfort with physical (versus nonphysical) contact, whereas a criminal target (stigmatized for disease-irrelevant reasons) was found to arouse elevated discomfort for both types of contact. Study 3 used a between-subjects design that eliminated the influence of extraneous factors. A diseased target was found to arouse differentially heightened discomfort with physical (versus nonphysical) contact, and to do so more strongly than any other type of target.
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