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Bromham L, Yaxley KJ. Neighbours and relatives: accounting for spatial distribution when testing causal hypotheses in cultural evolution. EVOLUTIONARY HUMAN SCIENCES 2023; 5:e27. [PMID: 37829289 PMCID: PMC10565196 DOI: 10.1017/ehs.2023.23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2023] [Revised: 08/14/2023] [Accepted: 08/17/2023] [Indexed: 10/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Many important and interesting hypotheses about cultural evolution are evaluated using cross-cultural correlations: if knowing one particular feature of a culture (e.g. environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity or parasite load) allows you to predict other features (e.g. language features, religious beliefs, cuisine), it is often interpreted as indicating a causal link between the two (e.g. hotter climates carry greater disease risk, which encourages belief in supernatural forces and favours the use of antimicrobial ingredients in food preparation; dry climates make the production of distinct tones more difficult). However, testing such hypotheses from cross-cultural comparisons requires us to take proximity of cultures into account: nearby cultures share many aspects of their environment and are more likely to be similar in many culturally inherited traits. This can generate indirect associations between environment and culture which could be misinterpreted as signals of a direct causal link. Evaluating examples of cross-cultural correlations from the literature, we show that significant correlations interpreted as causal relationships can often be explained as a result of similarity between neighbouring cultures. We discuss some strategies for sorting the explanatory wheat from the co-varying chaff, distinguishing incidental correlations from causal relationships.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lindell Bromham
- Macroevolution and Macroecology, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
| | - Keaghan J. Yaxley
- Macroevolution and Macroecology, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
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2
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Jackson JC, Lindquist K, Drabble R, Atkinson Q, Watts J. Valence-dependent mutation in lexical evolution. Nat Hum Behav 2023; 7:707-717. [PMID: 37012368 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-023-01558-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2022] [Accepted: 02/15/2023] [Indexed: 04/05/2023]
Abstract
A central goal of linguistics is to understand how words evolve. Past research has found that macro-level factors such as frequency of word usage and population size explain the pace of lexical evolution. Here we focus on cognitive and affective factors, testing whether valence (positivity-negativity) explains lexical evolution rates. Using estimates of cognate replacement rates for 200 concepts on an Indo-European language tree spanning six to ten millennia, we find that negative valence correlates with faster cognate replacement. This association holds when controlling for frequency of use, and follow-up analyses show that it is most robust for adjectives ('dirty' versus 'clean'; 'bad' versus 'good'); it does not consistently reach statistical significance for verbs, and never reaches significance for nouns. We also present experiments showing that individuals are more likely to replace words for negative versus positive concepts. Our findings suggest that emotional valence affects micro-level guided variation, which drives macro-level valence-dependent mutation in adjectives.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Kristen Lindquist
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Ryan Drabble
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Quentin Atkinson
- School of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Joseph Watts
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Religion Programme, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
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3
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Host Manipulation Mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2. Acta Biotheor 2021; 70:4. [PMID: 34902063 PMCID: PMC8667538 DOI: 10.1007/s10441-021-09425-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2021] [Accepted: 08/16/2021] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
Viruses are the simplest of pathogens, but possess sophisticated molecular mechanisms to manipulate host behavior, frequently utilizing molecular mimicry. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been shown to bind to the host receptor neuropilin-1 in order to gain entry into the cell. To do this, the virus utilizes its spike protein polybasic cleavage site (PCS), which mimics the CendR motif of neuropilin-1's endogenous ligands. In addition to facilitating cell entry, binding to neuropilin-1 has analgesic effects. We discuss the potential impact of neuropilin-1 binding by SARS-CoV-2 in ameliorating sickness behavior of the host, and identify a convergent evolutionary strategy of PCS cleavage and subsequent neuropilin binding in other human viruses. In addition, we discuss the evolutionary leap of the ancestor of SARS-COV-2, which involved acquisition of the PCS thus faciliting binding to the neuropilin-1 receptor. Acquisition of the PCS by the ancestor of SARS-CoV-2 appears to have led to pleiotropic beneficial effects including enhancement of cell entry via binding to ACE2, facilitation of cell entry via binding to neuropilin-1, promotion of analgesia, and potentially the formation of decoy epitopes via enhanced shedding of the S1 subunit. Lastly, other potential neuromanipulation strategies employed by SARS-CoV-2 are discussed, including interferon suppression and the resulting reduction in sickness behavior, enhanced transmission through neurally mediated cough induction, and reduction in sense of smell.
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Schaller M, Murray DR, Hofer MK. The behavioural immune system and pandemic psychology: the evolved psychology of disease-avoidance and its implications for attitudes, behaviour, and public health during epidemic outbreaks. EUROPEAN REVIEW OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2021. [DOI: 10.1080/10463283.2021.1988404] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Mark Schaller
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, V6T1Z4, Canada
| | - Damian R. Murray
- Department of Psychology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, 70188, United States
| | - Marlise K. Hofer
- Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, Victoria, V8W2Y2, Canada
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Zmigrod L, Ebert T, Götz FM, Rentfrow PJ. The psychological and socio-political consequences of infectious diseases: Authoritarianism, governance, and nonzoonotic (human-to-human) infection transmission. JOURNAL OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY 2021. [DOI: 10.5964/jspp.7297] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
What are the socio-political consequences of infectious diseases? Humans have evolved to avoid disease and infection, resulting in a set of psychological mechanisms that promote disease-avoidance, referred to as the behavioral immune system (BIS). One manifestation of the BIS is the cautious avoidance of unfamiliar, foreign, or potentially contaminating stimuli. Specifically, when disease infection risk is salient or prevalent, authoritarian attitudes can emerge that seek to avoid and reject foreign outgroups while favoring homogenous, familiar ingroups. In the largest study conducted on the topic to date (N > 240,000), elevated regional levels of infectious pathogens were related to more authoritarian attitudes on three geographical levels: across U.S. metropolitan regions, U.S. states, and cross-culturally across 47 countries. The link between pathogen prevalence and authoritarian psychological dispositions predicted conservative voting behavior in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election and more authoritarian governance and state laws, in which one group of people imposes asymmetrical laws on others in a hierarchical structure. Furthermore, cross-cultural analysis illustrated that the relationship between infectious diseases and authoritarianism was pronounced for infectious diseases that can be acquired from other humans (nonzoonotic), and does not generalize to other infectious diseases that can only be acquired from non-human species (zoonotic diseases). At a time of heightened awareness of infectious diseases, the current findings are important reminders that public health and ecology can have ramifications for socio-political attitudes by shaping how citizens vote and are governed.
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Hudiyana J, Prawira B, Kartika DA, Mahendra D, Putra IE. Gods, germs, and science: Unraveling the role of scientific literacy, germ aversion, and religious fundamentalism in predicting attitudes towards gays and lesbians. JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY & APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2021. [DOI: 10.1002/casp.2534] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Benny Prawira
- Jaringan Rakyat Bhinneka (People's Diversity Network) Jakarta Indonesia
| | - Dyah Ayu Kartika
- Jaringan Rakyat Bhinneka (People's Diversity Network) Jakarta Indonesia
| | - Dimas Mahendra
- Jaringan Rakyat Bhinneka (People's Diversity Network) Jakarta Indonesia
| | - Idhamsyah Eka Putra
- Faculty of Psychology Universitas Persada Indonesia YAI Jakarta Indonesia
- Division for Applied Social Psychology Research Jakarta Indonesia
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Infection threat shapes our social instincts. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2021; 75:47. [PMID: 33583997 PMCID: PMC7873116 DOI: 10.1007/s00265-021-02975-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2020] [Revised: 01/05/2021] [Accepted: 01/11/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
We social animals must balance the need to avoid infections with the need to interact with conspecifics. To that end we have evolved, alongside our physiological immune system, a suite of behaviors devised to deal with potentially contagious individuals. Focusing mostly on humans, the current review describes the design and biological innards of this behavioral immune system, laying out how infection threat shapes sociality and sociality shapes infection threat. The paper shows how the danger of contagion is detected and posted to the brain; how it affects individuals’ mate choice and sex life; why it strengthens ties within groups but severs those between them, leading to hostility toward anyone who looks, smells, or behaves unusually; and how it permeates the foundation of our moral and political views. This system was already in place when agriculture and animal domestication set off a massive increase in our population density, personal connections, and interaction with other species, amplifying enormously the spread of disease. Alas, pandemics such as COVID-19 not only are a disaster for public health, but, by rousing millions of behavioral immune systems, could prove a threat to harmonious cohabitation too.
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Testing the motivational tradeoffs between pathogen avoidance and status acquisition. SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL BULLETIN 2020. [DOI: 10.32872/spb.2721] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
To reduce disease transmission through interpersonal contact, humans have evolved a behavioral immune system that facilitates identification and avoidance of pathogens. One behavioral strategy in response to pathogenic threat is the adoption of interpersonal reticence. However, reticence may impede status acquisition. This program of research tested whether activating pathogen-avoidant motives through priming fosters reticence related to status, namely disinterest in pursuing a group leadership position (Study 1) or disinterest in accepting a group leadership position bestowed onto them (Study 2). Individuals high in germ aversion were particularly interested in pursuing leadership as a form of status, with disease salience unexpectedly heightening status motives among those low in germ aversion. Furthermore, those high in perceived infectability reported reluctance for high-status positions, although disease salience heightened interest in accepting such positions. We contextualize findings by identifying dispositional and situational factors that foster individuals to invoke motivational tradeoffs.
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Rudnev M, Vauclair CM, Aminihajibashi S, Becker M, Bilewicz M, Castellanos Guevara JL, Collier-Baker E, Crespo C, Eastwick P, Fischer R, Friese M, Gomez A, Guerra V, Hanke K, Hooper N, Huang LL, Karasawa M, Kuppens P, Loughnan S, Peker M, Pelay C, Pina A, Sachkova M, Saguy T, Shi J, Silfver-Kuhalampi M, Sortheix F, Swann W, Tong J(YY, Yeung VWL, Bastian B. Measurement invariance of the moral vitalism scale across 28 cultural groups. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0233989. [PMID: 32516333 PMCID: PMC7282638 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0233989] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2020] [Accepted: 05/16/2020] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Moral vitalism refers to a tendency to view good and evil as actual forces that can influence people and events. The Moral Vitalism Scale had been designed to assess moral vitalism in a brief survey form. Previous studies established the reliability and validity of the scale in US-American and Australian samples. In this study, the cross-cultural comparability of the scale was tested across 28 different cultural groups worldwide through measurement invariance tests. A series of exact invariance tests marginally supported partial metric invariance, however, an approximate invariance approach provided evidence of partial scalar invariance for a 5-item measure. The established level of measurement invariance allows for comparisons of latent means across cultures. We conclude that the brief measure of moral vitalism is invariant across 28 cultures and can be used to estimate levels of moral vitalism with the same precision across very different cultural settings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maksim Rudnev
- National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia
- Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), CIS-IUL, Lisboa, Portugal
- * E-mail:
| | | | | | - Maja Becker
- CLLE, Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France
| | | | | | | | - Carla Crespo
- CICPSI, Faculty of Psychology, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Paul Eastwick
- University of California, Davis, California, United States of America
| | - Ronald Fischer
- Victoria University of Wellington & Instituto D’Or de Pesquisa e Ensino, Wellington, New Zealand
| | | | - Angel Gomez
- Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid, Spain
| | | | - Katja Hanke
- University of Applied Management Studies, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Nic Hooper
- University of the West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | | | | | | | | | | | - Cesar Pelay
- Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela
| | | | - Marianna Sachkova
- Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Moscow, Russia
| | - Tamar Saguy
- Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, Herzliya, Israel
| | - Junqi Shi
- Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | | | | | - William Swann
- University of Texas Austin, Austin, Texas, United States of America
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Bastian B, Vauclair CM, Loughnan S, Bain P, Ashokkumar A, Becker M, Bilewicz M, Collier-Baker E, Crespo C, Eastwick PW, Fischer R, Friese M, Gómez Á, Guerra VM, Guevara JLC, Hanke K, Hooper N, Huang LL, Junqi S, Karasawa M, Kuppens P, Leknes S, Peker M, Pelay C, Pina A, Sachkova M, Saguy T, Silfver-Kuhalampi M, Sortheix F, Tong J, Yeung VWL, Duffy J, Swann WB. Explaining illness with evil: pathogen prevalence fosters moral vitalism. Proc Biol Sci 2019; 286:20191576. [PMID: 31662082 PMCID: PMC6842846 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2019.1576] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2019] [Accepted: 10/02/2019] [Indexed: 01/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Pathogens represent a significant threat to human health leading to the emergence of strategies designed to help manage their negative impact. We examined how spiritual beliefs developed to explain and predict the devastating effects of pathogens and spread of infectious disease. Analysis of existing data in studies 1 and 2 suggests that moral vitalism (beliefs about spiritual forces of evil) is higher in geographical regions characterized by historical higher levels of pathogens. Furthermore, drawing on a sample of 3140 participants from 28 countries in study 3, we found that historical higher levels of pathogens were associated with stronger endorsement of moral vitalistic beliefs. Furthermore, endorsement of moral vitalistic beliefs statistically mediated the previously reported relationship between pathogen prevalence and conservative ideologies, suggesting these beliefs reinforce behavioural strategies which function to prevent infection. We conclude that moral vitalism may be adaptive: by emphasizing concerns over contagion, it provided an explanatory model that enabled human groups to reduce rates of contagious disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brock Bastian
- Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | | | - Steve Loughnan
- School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Paul Bain
- Department of Psychology, University of Bath, Bath, Somerset, UK
| | - Ashwini Ashokkumar
- Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Maja Becker
- CLLE, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UT2J, Toulouse, Midi-Pyrénées, France
| | - Michał Bilewicz
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Warsaw, Warszawa, Poland
| | - Emma Collier-Baker
- School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
- Forest, Nature and Environment Aceh, Banda Aceh City, Aceh, Indonesia
| | - Carla Crespo
- Faculty of Psychology, University of Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal
| | - Paul W. Eastwick
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, CA, USA
| | - Ronald Fischer
- School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
| | - Malte Friese
- Department of Psychology, Saarland University, Saarbrucken, Saarland, Germany
| | - Ángel Gómez
- Department of Social and Organizational Psychology, Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia, Madrid, Spain
| | - Valeschka M. Guerra
- Department of Psychology, Universidade Federal do Espirito Santo, Vitoria, Brazil
| | | | - Katja Hanke
- University of Applied Management Studies, Mannheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany
| | - Nic Hooper
- Health and Social Sciences, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK
| | - Li-Li Huang
- School of Economics and Management, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, Republic of China
| | - Shi Junqi
- Lingnan College, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People's Republic of China
| | - Minoru Karasawa
- Department of Psychology, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan
| | - Peter Kuppens
- Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Leuven, Leuven, Flanders, Belgium
| | - Siri Leknes
- Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Müjde Peker
- Department of Psychology, MEF University, Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Cesar Pelay
- Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, Distrito Capital, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
| | - Afroditi Pina
- School of Psychology, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, UK
| | - Marianna Sachkova
- Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Moskva, Russian Federation
| | - Tamar Saguy
- Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, Herzliya, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | | | - Florencia Sortheix
- Swedish School of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Jennifer Tong
- School of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Victoria Wai-lan Yeung
- Department of Applied Psychology, Lingnan University, New Territories, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China
| | - Jacob Duffy
- Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - William B. Swann
- Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
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