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Matthijssen MAM, van Leeuwen F, Cloin M, van de Goor I, Achterberg P. The dimensionality of vaccination intentions: One strain or multiple strains? Health Psychol 2024:2024-71467-001. [PMID: 38573690 DOI: 10.1037/hea0001367] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/05/2024]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE People likely have different attitudes toward different vaccines (e.g., they may hold a positive attitude toward the measles, mumps, and rubella-vaccine while simultaneously hold a neutral attitude toward the flu shot). To examine the dimensionality of vaccination intentions, we measured vaccination intentions toward 16 different diseases. We hypothesized that people differentiate between child-directed vaccination intentions and self-directed vaccination intentions. Furthermore, we hypothesized that some commonly studied factors (e.g., trust in authorities and fear of needles) might have different associations with the two subtypes of vaccination intentions. METHOD We used data from a nationally representative sample of the Netherlands collected in 2021. We used exploratory (N = 865) and confirmatory factor analysis (N = 865) to evaluate the dimensionality hypothesis and used linear hypothesis tests (N = 1,779) to test whether the commonly studied factors had different associations with the different subtypes of vaccination intentions. RESULTS The analysis showed two distinct factors of vaccination intentions: intentions toward childhood diseases and intentions toward nonchildhood diseases. Additionally, spiritual beliefs, trust in authorities, and belief in conspiracy theories had stronger associations with nonchildhood diseases than with childhood diseases. Fear of needles, prosocial personality, and religious orthodox beliefs did not have different associations with both types of vaccination intentions. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that vaccination intentions is a multidimensional construct and that interventions may benefit from being tailored to the factors relevant for each specific type of vaccine. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
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Bartusevičius H, van Leeuwen F, Petersen MB. Political repression motivates anti-government violence. R Soc Open Sci 2023; 10:221227. [PMID: 37325594 PMCID: PMC10265031 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.221227] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2022] [Accepted: 05/09/2023] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
We examined whether political repression deters citizens from engaging in anti-government behaviour (its intended goal) or in fact motivates it. Analyses of 101 nationally representative samples from three continents (N = 139 266) revealed a positive association between perceived levels of repression and intentions to engage in anti-government violence. Additional analyses of fine-grained data from three countries characterized by widespread repression and anti-government violence (N = 2960) identified a positive association between personal experience with repression and intentions to engage in anti-government violence. Randomized experiments revealed that thoughts about repression also motivate participation in anti-government violence. These results suggest that political repression, aside from being normatively abhorrent, motivates anti-repressor violence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Henrikas Bartusevičius
- Peace Research Institute Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
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van Leeuwen F, Jaeger B, Sleegers WWA, Petersen MB. Do Experimental Manipulations of Pathogen Avoidance Motivations Influence Conformity? Pers Soc Psychol Bull 2023:1461672231160655. [PMID: 36945750 DOI: 10.1177/01461672231160655] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/23/2023]
Abstract
By conforming to ingroup norms, individuals coordinate with other group members, preserve cohesion, and avoid costs of exclusion. Previous experiments have shown that increased concerns about infectious disease increase conformity. However, coordination with other group members has multiple benefits, most of which exist independent of pathogenic infection. Hence, a strong causal effect of pathogen avoidance motivations on conformity seems unlikely. Results from five experiments (N = 1,931) showed only limited support for the hypothesis that experimentally increasing pathogen avoidance motivations influences conformity. Overall, our findings are not consistent with the notion that the human mind contains a fast-acting psychological mechanism that regulates conformity as a function of short-term pathogen avoidance motivations.
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Ren D, Wesselmann ED, Loh WW, van Beest I, van Leeuwen F, Sleegers WWA. Do cues of infectious disease shape people's affective responses to social exclusion? Emotion 2022; 23:997-1010. [PMID: 36048032 DOI: 10.1037/emo0001157] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Social exclusion triggers aversive reactions (e.g., increased negative affect), but being excluded may bring substantial benefits by reducing pathogen exposure associated with social interactions. Is exclusion less aversive when cues of infectious diseases are salient in the environment? We conducted two preregistered experiments with a 2 (belonging status: included vs. excluded) × 2 (disease salience: low vs. high) design, using scenarios (Study 1, N = 347) and a well-validated exclusion paradigm, Cyberball (Study 2, N = 519). Positive affect and negative affect were measured as the key outcomes. Across the 2 studies, we found little evidence that disease salience moderated the effect of exclusion (vs. inclusion) on positive affect. At the same time, we observed consistent evidence that disease salience moderated the effect of exclusion (vs. inclusion) on the other affective component: negative affect. Concretely, disease salience increased participants' negative affect in inclusion conditions; in exclusion conditions, the effect of disease salience on negative affect was negligible or nearly zero. Using a novel and robust approach of mediation analysis (interventional indirect effects), we further showed that the motive of disease avoidance rivals the motive of affiliation in shaping people's experiences of social interactions. These findings suggest that cues of disease salience alter people's affective experience with inclusion but not exclusion. The current research represents an important step toward understanding people's affective responses to social exclusion and inclusion in complex social situations involving multiple, and potentially conflicting motives. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
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Abstract
AbstractThe emotion disgust motivates the avoidance of pathogens and contaminants. Individuals differ in their tendency to experience disgust and this is referred to as pathogen disgust sensitivity. Yet, it remains unclear which differences in psychological processes are captured by pathogen disgust sensitivity. We tested two hypotheses about how the information processing structure underlying pathogen avoidance might give rise to individual differences in pathogen disgust sensitivity. Participants (n = 998) rated the perceived health of individuals with or without facial blemishes and indicated how comfortable they would feel about having physical contact with them. For participants with high disgust sensitivity, facial blemishes were more indicative of poor health and perceived health was more strongly related to comfort with physical contact. These findings suggest that pathogen disgust sensitivity reflects individual differences in the tendency to interpret stimuli as an infection risk and the weight given to estimated infection risk when deciding who should be approached or avoided.
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van Leeuwen F, Inbar Y, Petersen MB, Aarøe L, Barclay P, Barlow FK, de Barra M, Becker DV, Borovoi L, Choi J, Consedine NS, Conway JR, Conway P, Adoric VC, Demirci E, Fernández AM, Ferreira DCS, Ishii K, Jakšić I, Ji T, Jonaityte I, Lewis DMG, Li NP, McIntyre JC, Mukherjee S, Park JH, Pawlowski B, Pizarro D, Prokop P, Prodromitis G, Rantala MJ, Reynolds LM, Sandin B, Sevi B, Srinivasan N, Tewari S, Yong JC, Žeželj I, Tybur JM. Disgust sensitivity relates to attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women across 31 nations. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations 2022. [DOI: 10.1177/13684302211067151] [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: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Previous work has reported a relation between pathogen-avoidance motivations and prejudice toward various social groups, including gay men and lesbian women. It is currently unknown whether this association is present across cultures, or specific to North America. Analyses of survey data from adult heterosexuals ( N = 11,200) from 31 countries showed a small relation between pathogen disgust sensitivity (an individual-difference measure of pathogen-avoidance motivations) and measures of antigay attitudes. Analyses also showed that pathogen disgust sensitivity relates not only to antipathy toward gay men and lesbians, but also to negativity toward other groups, in particular those associated with violations of traditional sexual norms (e.g., prostitutes). These results suggest that the association between pathogen-avoidance motivations and antigay attitudes is relatively stable across cultures and is a manifestation of a more general relation between pathogen-avoidance motivations and prejudice towards groups associated with sexual norm violations.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Leah Borovoi
- National Institute for Testing and Evaluation, Israel
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- College of Science, Health, Engineering and Education, and Centre for Healthy Ageing, Health Futures Institute, Murdoch University, Australia
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Pavol Prokop
- Comenius University, Slovakia
- Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia
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Bartusevičius H, van Leeuwen F, Petersen MB. Dominance-Driven Autocratic Political Orientations Predict Political Violence in Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) and Non-WEIRD Samples. Psychol Sci 2020; 31:1511-1530. [PMID: 32706617 DOI: 10.1177/0956797620922476] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Given the costs of political violence, scholars have long sought to identify its causes. We examined individual differences related to participation in political violence, emphasizing the central role of political orientations. We hypothesized that individuals with dominance-driven autocratic political orientations are prone to political violence. Multilevel analysis of survey data from 34 African countries (N = 51,587) indicated that autocracy-oriented individuals, compared with democracy-oriented individuals, are considerably more likely to participate in political violence. As a predictor of violence (indexed with attitudinal, intentional, and behavioral measures), autocratic orientation outperformed other variables highlighted in existing research, including socioeconomic status and group-based injustice. Additional analyses of original data from South Africa (N = 2,170), Denmark (N = 1,012), and the United States (N = 1,539) indicated that the link between autocratic orientations and political violence reflects individual differences in the use of dominance to achieve status and that the findings generalize to societies extensively socialized to democratic values.
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van Leeuwen F, Parren N, Miton H, Boyer P. Individual Choose-to-Transmit Decisions Reveal Little Preference for Transmitting Negative or High-Arousal Content. J Cogn Cult 2018. [DOI: 10.1163/15685373-12340018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
Research on social transmission suggests that people preferentially transmit information about threats and social interactions. Such biases might be driven by the arousal that is experienced as part of the emotional response triggered by information about threats or social relationships. The current studies tested whether preferences for transmitting threat-relevant information are consistent with a functional motive to recruit social support. USA residents were recruited for six online studies. Studies 1a and 1B showed that participants more often chose to transmit positive, low-arousal vignettes (rather than negative, high-arousal vignettes involving threats and social interactions). Studies 2A and 2B showed higher intentions to transmit emotional vignettes (triggering disgust, fear, anger, or sadness) to friends (rather than to strangers or disliked acquaintances). Study 4 showed a preference for transmitting stories that participants had modified and were therefore novel and unique. Studies 2A and 3 (but not Studies 2B and 4) suggest that motivations for seeking social support might influence transmission preferences. Overall, the findings are not easily accounted for by any of the major theories of social transmission. We discuss limitations of the current studies and directions for further research.
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Koenig BL, van Leeuwen F, Park JH. Cross-race misaggregation: Its detection, a mathematical decomposition, and Simpson’s Paradox. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences 2017. [DOI: 10.1037/ebs0000067] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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van Leeuwen F, Dukes A, Tybur JM, Park JH. Disgust sensitivity relates to moral foundations independent of political ideology. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences 2017. [DOI: 10.1037/ebs0000075] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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Abstract
Contact between people from different groups triggers specific individual- and group-level responses, ranging from attitudes and emotions to welfare and health outcomes. Standard social psychological perspectives do not yet provide an integrated, causal model of these phenomena. As an alternative, we describe a coalitional perspective. Human psychology includes evolved cognitive systems designed to garner support from other individuals, organize and maintain alliances, and measure potential support from group members. Relations between alliances are strongly influenced by threat detection mechanisms, which are sensitive to cues that express that one's own group will provide less support or that other groups are dangerous. Repeated perceptions of such threat cues can lead to chronic stress. The model provides a parsimonious explanation for many individual-level effects of intergroup relations and group-level disparities in health and well-being. This perspective suggests new research directions aimed at understanding the psychological processes involved in intergroup relations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pascal Boyer
- Departments of Psychology and Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis
| | - Rengin Firat
- Laboratoire Dynamique du Langage, Universite de Lyon, France
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Abstract
Homophobia encompasses a variety of attitudes and behaviors with distinct causal paths. We focus on aggressive homophobia, a propensity to feel anger and express aggression toward gay men. We investigated the conjecture that homosexual males might be seen, in recent Western cultures, as defectors from collective group defense. We predicted that consistent with a functional motive to punish and deter free riding, the perception of gay men as defectors would motivate aggression toward gay men. We also predicted that individuals with greater commitment to group defense might show more aggressive homophobia (as these individuals have more to lose from the defection than individuals who are not committed to group defense). Study 1 showed that aggressive homophobia correlated positively with the tendency to implicitly associate gay men with defection from group defense. Study 2 showed that a tendency to punish homosexual males for a theft correlated positively with commitment to group defense. The findings suggest that coalitional psychology might contribute to explaining the existence and quality of certain kinds of social stigma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Florian van Leeuwen
- Laboratoire Dynamique Du Langage, University of Lyon, Lyon, France
- Present Address: Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Helena Miton
- Department of Cognitive Science, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Rengin B. Firat
- Global Studies Institute, Sociology and Neuroscience, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Pascal Boyer
- Departments of Psychology and Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
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van Leeuwen F, Hunt DF, Park JH. Is Obesity Stigma Based on Perceptions of Appearance or Character? Theory, Evidence, and Directions for Further Study. Evol Psychol 2015; 13:1474704915600565. [PMID: 37924183 PMCID: PMC10480947 DOI: 10.1177/1474704915600565] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2015] [Accepted: 07/22/2015] [Indexed: 11/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Theoretical approaches to stigmatization have highlighted distinct psychological mechanisms underlying distinct instances of stigmatization. Some stigmas are based on inferences of substandard psychological character (e.g., individuals deemed untrustworthy), whereas others are based on perceptions of substandard physical appearance (e.g., individuals with physical deformities). These inferences and perceptions are associated with specific cognitive and motivational processes, which have implications for understanding specific instances of stigmatization. Recent theoretical approaches and empirical findings suggest that obesity stigma involves both inferences of substandard psychological character and perceptions of substandard physical appearance. We provide a review of the relevant evidence and discuss directions for future research.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - David Francis Hunt
- School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Justin H. Park
- School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
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Park JH, van Leeuwen F. The Asymmetric Behavioral Homeostasis Hypothesis: Unidirectional Flexibility of Fundamental Motivational Processes. Review of General Psychology 2014. [DOI: 10.1037/gpr0000004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Natural selection has produced not only fixed adaptive traits in response to enduring environments, but also contingencies capable of yielding variable outcomes in variable environments. A well-known example is phenotypic plasticity, which entails alternative developmental outcomes in different environments. Here, we focus on more immediate and transitory behavioral plasticity (underpinned by motivational processes), and we suggest that the physiological concept of homeostasis offers a coherent perspective for studying human motivations and associated behavioral processes. We further propose the asymmetric behavioral homeostasis hypothesis, which conceptualizes many motivational processes as 1-sided homeostatic mechanisms and which predicts that motivational responses that are amplified by certain cues will not be reversed simply by reversing the input cues. An important implication is that many evolutionarily adaptive—albeit subjectively and socially deleterious—responses to fitness threats (e.g., fears, aversions) are more easily inflamed than dampened. We review literature bearing on this hypothesis and discuss implications for psychology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Justin H. Park
- School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol
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Park JH, van Leeuwen F, Chochorelou Y. Disease-avoidance processes and stigmatization: cues of substandard health arouse heightened discomfort with physical contact. J Soc Psychol 2013; 153:212-28. [PMID: 23484348 DOI: 10.1080/00224545.2012.721812] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
An evolutionary approach to stigmatization suggests that disease-avoidance processes contribute to some instances of social exclusion. Disease-avoidance processes are over-inclusive, targeting even non-threatening individuals who display cues of substandard health. We investigated whether such cues motivate avoidance of physical contact in particular. In Studies 1 and 2, targets with disease (e.g., leprosy) or atypical morphologies (e.g., amputated leg, obesity) were found to arouse differentially heightened discomfort with physical (versus nonphysical) contact, whereas a criminal target (stigmatized for disease-irrelevant reasons) was found to arouse elevated discomfort for both types of contact. Study 3 used a between-subjects design that eliminated the influence of extraneous factors. A diseased target was found to arouse differentially heightened discomfort with physical (versus nonphysical) contact, and to do so more strongly than any other type of target.
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Affiliation(s)
- Justin H Park
- University of Bristol, School of Experimental Psychology, 12a Priory Rd., Bristol BS8 1TU, UK.
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van Leeuwen F, Park JH, Penton-Voak IS. Another fundamental social category? Spontaneous categorization of people who uphold or violate moral norms. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 2012. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2012.06.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
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Park JH, van Leeuwen F, Stephen ID. Homeliness is in the disgust sensitivity of the beholder: relatively unattractive faces appear especially unattractive to individuals higher in pathogen disgust. EVOL HUM BEHAV 2012. [DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2012.02.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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