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Crowd Salience Heightens Tolerance to Healthy Facial Features
Mitch Brown1, Ryan E Tracy2, Steven G Young2,3
1Department of Psychological Science, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701 USA.
Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology
|September 27, 2021
Summary
Crowding increases preference for healthy individuals by heightening pathogen avoidance. This effect stems from managing infection threats, not from increased aversion to disease cues.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Social Psychology
- Evolutionary Psychology
Background:
- Crowd salience may enhance pathogen avoidance motives, reducing infection risk via interpersonal contact.
- This heightened awareness could also improve identification and avoidance of diseased individuals.
Purpose of the Study:
- To replicate and extend previous research on crowding and pathogen avoidance.
- To investigate how crowding influences the evaluation of healthy versus diseased faces.
Main Methods:
- Participants at two universities were primed with either a crowding or control experience.
- They then evaluated faces manipulated to appear healthy or diseased.
- Participants indicated their willingness to interact with each face.
Main Results:
- Crowding-primed participants showed a heightened preference for healthy faces compared to controls.
- Crowd salience reduced aversion to healthy faces.
- No significant increase in aversion to diseased faces was observed.
Conclusions:
- Crowding heightens tolerance for health cues due to increased perceived infection risk in close proximity.
- This preference is not driven by an increased aversion to poor health cues.
- Findings support a threat management perspective on how crowding influences pathogen sensitivity.
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