Visual cues that predict intuitive risk perception in the case of HIV

Are You Safe or Should I Go? How Perceived Trustworthiness and Probability of a Sexual Transmittable Infection Impact Activation of the Salience Network

Functional imaging studies indicate that both the assessment of a person as untrustworthy and the assumption that a person has a sexually transmitted infection are associated with activation in regions of the salience network. However, studies are missing that combine these aspects and investigate the perceived trustworthiness of individuals previously assessed with high or low probability of a sexually transmitted infection. During fMRI measurements, 25 participants viewed photographs of people preclassified as having high or low HIV probability and judged their trustworthiness. In a postrating, stimuli were rated for trustworthiness, attractiveness, and HIV probability. Persons preclassified as HIV- in contrast to those preclassified as HIV+ were rated more trustworthy and with lower HIV probability. Activation in medial orbitofrontal cortex was higher for those rated and preclassified as HIV- than HIV+. Based on the individual ratings, but not the preclassification, there was significantly higher activation in the insula, amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex, and nucleus accumbens in response to untrustworthy than to trustworthy faces. Activation of the salience network occurred when a person was judged as untrustworthy, but not according to a preclassification. Activation in the medial orbitofrontal cortex, a structure associated with reward, was enhanced when a person was perceived as trustworthy and also when a person was preclassified with low HIV probability. Our findings suggest that trustworthiness and HIV- perception have consistency across samples, while the perception of risk and associated activation of the salience network has restricted cross-sample consistency.

Contagious Health Risk and Precautionary Social Distancing

Background

Since humans are social animals, social relations are incredibly important. However, in cases of contagious diseases such as the flu, social contacts also pose a health risk. According to prominent health behavior change theories, perceiving a risk for one’s health motivates precautionary behaviors. The “behavioral immune system” approach suggests that social distancing might be triggered as a precautionary, evolutionarily learned behavior to prevent transmitting contagious diseases through social contact. This study examines the link between personal risk perception for an infectious disease and precautionary behavior for disease-prevention in the context of social relationships.

Methods

At 2-week intervals during the first semester, 100 Psychology freshmen indicated their flu risk perception, whether they had been ill during the previous week, and their friendships within their freshmen network for eight time points.

Results

Social network analysis revealed that participants who reported a high flu risk perception listed fewer friends (B = −0.10, OR = 0.91, p = 0.026), and were more likely to be ill at the next measuring point (B = 0.26, OR = 1.30, p = 0.005). Incoming friendship nominations increased the likelihood of illness (B = 0.14, OR = 1.15, p = 0.008), while the reduced number of friendship nominations only marginally decreased this likelihood (B = −0.07, OR = 0.93, p = 0.052).

Conclusion

In accordance with the concept of a “behavioral immune system,” participants with high flu risk perception displayed a social precautionary distancing even when in an environment, in which the behavior was ineffective to prevent an illness.

Environmental convergence in facial preferences: a cross-group comparison of Asian Vietnamese, Czech Vietnamese, and Czechs

It has been demonstrated that sociocultural environment has a significant impact on human behavior. This contribution focuses on differences in the perception of attractiveness of European (Czech) faces as rated by Czechs of European origin, Vietnamese persons living in the Czech Republic and Vietnamese who permanently reside in Vietnam. We investigated whether attractiveness judgments and preferences for facial sex-typicality and averageness in Vietnamese who grew up and live in the Czech Republic are closer to the judgements and preferences of Czech Europeans or to those of Vietnamese born and residing in Vietnam. We examined the relative contribution of sexual shape dimorphism and averageness to the perception of facial attractiveness across all three groups of raters. Czech Europeans, Czech Vietnamese, and Asian Vietnamese raters of both sexes rated facial portraits of 100 Czech European participants (50 women and 50 men, standardized, non-manipulated) for attractiveness. Taking Czech European ratings as a standard for Czech facial attractiveness, we showed that Czech Vietnamese assessments of attractiveness were closer to this standard than assessments by the Asian Vietnamese. Among all groups of raters, facial averageness positively correlated with perceived attractiveness, which is consistent with the "average is attractive" hypothesis. A marginal impact of sexual shape dimorphism on attractiveness rating was found only in Czech European male raters: neither Czech Vietnamese nor Asian Vietnamese raters of either sex utilized traits associated with sexual shape dimorphism as a cue of attractiveness. We thus conclude that Vietnamese people permanently living in the Czech Republic converge with Czechs of Czech origin in perceptions of facial attractiveness and that this population adopted some but not all Czech standards of beauty.

Impressions of HIV risk online: Brain potentials while viewing online dating profiles

There is an increasing trend to use online dating to meet potential partners. Previous studies in off-line contexts indicate that people may judge the risk of sexually transmitted infections based on a person's appearance. Online dating profiles commonly present profile pictures and verbal self-descriptions. To examine the integration of verbal and visual risk information, the current event-related potential (ERP) study used a simulated dating platform in which verbal-descriptive information (low vs. high verbal risk) was presented, followed by a photograph (low vs. high visual risk). Results indicated main effects of verbal and visual risk. Specifically, high-risk compared with low-risk verbal profiles elicited a relative negative shift over occipitoparietal sensor sites between 260 ms and 408 ms. Furthermore, a sustained occipital negativity (132-500 ms) and central positivity (156-272 ms) was observed for high as compared with low visual risk profiles. There was also evidence for the integration of verbal and visual risk formation, as indicated by distinct positive ERP shift occurred between 272 ms and 428 ms over anterior temporal regions when a high-risk photograph was preceded by high-risk verbal information. This suggests that verbal-descriptive information is integrated with visual appearance early in the processing stream. The distinct response for high verbal and visual information extends the notion of an alarm function ascribed to risk perception by demonstrating integration about multiple sources. Simulating online dating platforms provides a useful tool to examine intuitive risk perception.