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Training Improves Avoidance of Natural Sick Faces: Changes in Visual Attention and Approach Decisions
Tiffany S Leung1, Krisztina V Jakobsen2, Sarah E Maylott3
1Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33124, USA.
Vision (Basel, Switzerland)
|May 23, 2025
Summary
Learning about disease improved adults' ability to recognize and avoid sick faces. This suggests sickness perception is flexible and can be enhanced through experience to reduce disease spread.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Evolutionary Biology
- Public Health
Background:
- Humans possess a behavioral immune system to detect and avoid infectious diseases.
- Facial cues of sickness are a key component of this system, but its malleability is not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether adults' perception of sickness cues in faces can be improved through experience.
- To examine the effects of disease-related training on sickness recognition, avoidance, and visual attention to sick faces.
Main Methods:
- 133 adult participants were randomly assigned to either a disease information training group or a control group.
- Participants' recognition, avoidance, and visual attention to naturally sick and healthy faces were measured.
- Eye-tracking was used to analyze visual attention patterns.
Main Results:
- The disease-trained group demonstrated improved avoidance of sick faces compared to the control group.
- The trained group showed more balanced visual attention between sick and healthy faces during identification tasks.
- Disease-trained participants utilized specific facial features (eyes, mouth) more effectively for sickness detection.
Conclusions:
- Facial sickness perception is malleable and can be enhanced by experience and targeted training.
- Interventions leveraging this plasticity could potentially reduce disease transmission by improving sickness detection.
- Further research is needed to optimize training methods for strengthening sickness perception skills.
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