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Wicks LAM, Baldwin DR, Richesin MT. Disgust-Eliciting Pathogen Threats and Salivary Immune Responses. J PSYCHOPHYSIOL 2022. [DOI: 10.1027/0269-8803/a000316] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Abstract. This study aimed to examine the effects of different sensory modality presentations of disgusting stimuli on aspects of immunity (behavioral and physiological) and affect in men and women. Sixty-four college students participated, and all participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups based on sensory modality stimuli type (visual or olfactory) and manipulation (experimental or control). Results indicated that olfactory stimuli were rated as more disgusting than visual stimuli. When collapsed across sensory modality, females tended to self-report greater disgust sensitivity than males. Overall, there was a significant negative association between disgust ratings and changes in resting heart rate (HR). Baseline salivary immunoglobulin A (SIgA) concentration was significantly positively correlated with disgust ratings in men. Our findings suggest that the behavioral and physiological immune systems are indeed coordinated, but future studies are needed to examine the extent to which multisensory disgusting cues influence immune system responses as a function of gender.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lahai A. M. Wicks
- Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
| | - Debora R. Baldwin
- Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
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Keller JK, Wülfing C, Wahl J, Diekhof EK. Disease-related disgust promotes antibody release in human saliva. Brain Behav Immun Health 2022; 24:100489. [PMID: 35866104 PMCID: PMC9293731 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbih.2022.100489] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2022] [Revised: 07/07/2022] [Accepted: 07/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
The behavioral immune system (BIS) comprises manifold mechanisms, that may assist the physiological immune system (PIS) in counteracting infection and can even reduce the risk of contagion. Previous studies have found initial evidence for possible interactions between the two systems. However, most of these findings were correlative and have not been replicated. Further, none of these studies examined whether disease stimuli that indicate an enhanced airborne transmission risk may trigger a different immune response in comparison to stimuli that predominantly evoke core disgust. In the present study, we employed a video-priming approach to get further insight in the influence of the perception of disgust- and disease-related stimuli on the rapid physiological immune response, as indicated by changes of secretory immunoglobulin A (S-IgA) in saliva. We created three video primers that represented different categories of disgust- and/or disease-associated content. Two of the videos showed disease-related situations that were associated with contagious respiratory virus infections, varying in concealment of aerosols. The third video incurred no heightened airborne contagion risk, but comprised situations that are known to elicit core disgust, such as rotten foods, decaying animal carcasses, or cockroaches. A fourth video acted as control showing landscape impressions. The different video primers varied in their contagion risk and disgust-evoking potential. Given the role of S-IgA in the mucosal immune defense, we expected differences in the S-IgA response between the two videos indicating a heightened airborne contagion risk and the core disgust video, with the highest S-IgA to occur after the aerosol video. For this, we used the data of 107 healthy participants in a between-subjects design with the four video primers. We found a significant increase of S-IgA in response to both the disease- and the disgust-related videos, which correlated positively with the perceived contagion risk of the displayed situations. Nevertheless, there was no significant difference in the increase between the three disease- and disgust-related videos. We also found that people with a high contamination disgust produced less S-IgA in such situations, which is a hint for a compensating relationship between the BIS and PIS. Our observations suggest that the mere visual perception of videos showing realistic situations of an increased contagion risk can elicit a heightened release of salivary antibodies. Realistic videos of respiratory diseases are efficient to trigger immune responses. Secretory Immunoglobulin A (S-IgA) in saliva increases after video-priming. S-IgA increase is positively correlated with perceived contagion risk. S-IgA increase is inversely correlated with the trait contamination disgust.
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IZZO G, PUJIA R, VACCARO MG, GRECO F, AVERSA A, LA VIGNERA S, LIUZZA MT, EMERENZIANI GP. The relationship between sociosexual orientation, muscle performance and disgust sensitivity: a preliminary correlational study. Minerva Endocrinol (Torino) 2022; 47:140-149. [DOI: 10.23736/s2724-6507.20.03258-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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Abstract
While the findings from previous studies directly relate the ingroup derogation phenomenon to the evolved response of the behavioral immune system, there are three major limitations in the previous studies on the functional flexibility of ingroup derogation. The present study further investigated the functional flexibility of ingroup derogation by conducting three behavioral experiments on Chinese participants. In Experiment 1, we tested whether exposing to situational disease primes leads to an exaggerated ingroup derogation attitude by adopting a more rigorous control. In Experiment 2, we manipulated the source of disease threats to test whether the ingroup derogation mechanism adjusts its response according to the specific perceived vulnerabilities to the disease threats posed by ingroup and outgroup members. In Experiment 3, we tested whether recent illness promotes the expression of ingroup derogation attitudes. Results of the three experiments consistently showed that, the Chinese participants adjusted their ingroup derogation attitudes according to the external environmental disease cues (Experiments 1 and 2) and the internal physiological disease cues (Experiment 3). The results also showed that the ingroup derogation mechanism was sensitive to the specific perceived vulnerabilities to the ingroup disease threat and the outgroup disease threat (Experiment 2). Taken together, these results support the evolutionary hypothesis of ingroup derogation and suggest that the ingroup derogation found in East Asian cultures could be accounted by a functionally flexible disease-avoidance mechanism.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Ping Zhou
- Cognition and Human Behavior Key Laboratory of Hunan Province, Department of Psychology, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China
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Thorstenson CA, Pazda AD, Elliot AJ. Social Perception of Facial Color Appearance for Human Trichromatic Versus Dichromatic Color Vision. Pers Soc Psychol Bull 2019; 46:51-63. [DOI: 10.1177/0146167219841641] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Typical human color vision is trichromatic, on the basis that we have three distinct classes of photoreceptors. A recent evolutionary account posits that trichromacy facilitates detecting subtle skin color changes to better distinguish important social states related to proceptivity, health, and emotion in others. Across two experiments, we manipulated the facial color appearance of images consistent with a skin blood perfusion response and asked participants to evaluate the perceived attractiveness, health, and anger of the face (trichromatic condition). We additionally simulated what these faces would look like for three dichromatic conditions (protanopia, deuteranopia, tritanopia). The results demonstrated that flushed (relative to baseline) faces were perceived as more attractive, healthy, and angry in the trichromatic and tritanopia conditions, but not in the protanopia and deuteranopia conditions. The results provide empirical support for the social perception account of trichromatic color vision evolution and lead to systematic predictions of social perception based on ecological social perception theory.
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Murray DR, Prokosch ML, Airington Z. PsychoBehavioroimmunology: Connecting the Behavioral Immune System to Its Physiological Foundations. Front Psychol 2019; 10:200. [PMID: 30804853 PMCID: PMC6378957 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00200] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2018] [Accepted: 01/21/2019] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Although infectious disease has posed a significant and persistent threat to human survival and welfare throughout history, only recently have the psychological and behavioral implications of disease threat become a topic of research within the behavioral sciences. This growing body of work has revealed a suite of affective and cognitive processes that motivate the avoidance of disease-causing objects and situations—a cascade of processes loosely conceptualized as a “behavioral immune system (BIS).” Recent BIS research has linked disease threat to a surprisingly broad set of psychological and behavioral phenomena. However, research examining how the BIS is nested within our broader physiology is only beginning to emerge. Here, we review research that has begun to elucidate the physiological foundations of the BIS—at the levels of sensory modalities, cells, and genes. We also discuss the future of this work.
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Affiliation(s)
- Damian R Murray
- Department of Psychology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, United States
| | | | - Zachary Airington
- Department of Psychology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, United States
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Lehmann GK, Elliot AJ, Calin-Jageman RJ. Meta-Analysis of the Effect of Red on Perceived Attractiveness. Evol Psychol 2018; 16:1474704918802412. [PMID: 30282470 PMCID: PMC10480976 DOI: 10.1177/1474704918802412] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2018] [Accepted: 08/31/2018] [Indexed: 01/28/2023] Open
Abstract
We conducted meta-analyses of studies that test the red-romance hypothesis, which is that the color red enhances heterosexual attraction in romantic contexts. For men rating women, we found a small, statistically significant effect ( d = 0.26 [0.12, 0.40], p = .0004, N = 2,961), with substantial heterogeneity, Q(44) = 172.5, pQ < .0001, I2 = 89% [82, 94], and equivocal results regarding the possibility of upward bias in the estimate. For women rating men, we found a very small effect ( d = 0.13 [0.01, 0.25], p = .03, N = 2,739), with substantial heterogeneity, Q(35) = 73.0, pQ = .0002, I2 = 53% [33, 80], and evidence of upward bias in the estimate. Moderator analyses suggest effect sizes may have declined over time (both genders), may be largest when an original shade of red is used (men only), and may be smaller in preregistered studies (women only). We present contrasting interpretations and suggestions for future research.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Andrew J. Elliot
- Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA
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Torrance JS, Hahn AC, Kandrik M, DeBruine LM, Jones BC. No Evidence for Associations between men's Salivary Testosterone and Responses on the Intrasexual Competitiveness Scale. Adapt Human Behav Physiol 2018; 4:321-327. [PMID: 30956939 PMCID: PMC6428293 DOI: 10.1007/s40750-018-0095-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/14/2017] [Revised: 05/08/2018] [Accepted: 05/15/2018] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
Objectives Many previous studies have investigated relationships between men’s competitiveness and testosterone. For example, the extent of changes in men’s testosterone levels following a competitive task predicts the likelihood of them choosing to compete again. Recent work investigating whether individual differences in men’s testosterone levels predict individual differences in their competitiveness have produced mixed results. Methods In light of the above, we investigated whether men’s (N = 59) scores on the Intrasexual Competitiveness Scale were related to either within-subject changes or between-subject differences in men’s salivary testosterone levels. Results Men’s responses on the Intrasexual Competitiveness Scale did not appear to track within-subject changes in testosterone. By contrast with one recent study, men’s Intrasexual Competitiveness Scale also did not appear to be related to individual differences in testosterone. Conclusions Our results present no evidence for associations between men’s testosterone and their responses on the Intrasexual Competitiveness Scale. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s40750-018-0095-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jaimie S Torrance
- 1Institute of Neuroscience & Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
| | - Amanda C Hahn
- 2Department of Psychology, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA USA
| | - Michal Kandrik
- 3Institute for Brain and Behavior Amsterdam, VU, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Lisa M DeBruine
- 1Institute of Neuroscience & Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
| | - Benedict C Jones
- 1Institute of Neuroscience & Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
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Han C, Wang H, Hahn AC, Fisher CI, Kandrik M, Fasolt V, Morrison DK, Lee AJ, Holzleitner IJ, DeBruine LM, Jones BC. Cultural differences in preferences for facial coloration. EVOL HUM BEHAV 2018. [DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2017.11.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
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