I see sick people: Beliefs about sensory detection of infectious disease are largely consistent across cultures

Joshua Ackerman, Theodore Samore, Daniel M.T. Fessler, Tom Kupfer, Soyeon Choi, Wilson Merrell, Lene Aarøe, Toivo Aavik, Stephen Acabado, Grace Akello, Ilham Alfian, Laith Al-Shawaf, Marinés Alvarez, Jeanine Ammann, Gizem Arikan, Saiyeda Asha, Anibal Astobiza, Pat Barclay, Fiona Kate Barlow, Lisiane Bizarro, Paola Bressan, Andres Castellanos-Chacón, Bryan K.C. Choy, Achmad Chusairi, Brenda Chávez Cosamalón, Jorge Contreras-Garduño, Mallika De, Tiago J.S. de Lima, Angelica Oliveira, Piyanjali de Zoysa, Ieva Dryžaitė, Christian Elbæk, Peter Fedor, Ana Fernández, Márta Fülöp, Vladimer Lado Gamsakhurdia, Leonor Garcia-Gómez, Leonel Garcia-Marques, Jimena Garduño-Franco, María Del Pilar Grazioso, Fanny Habacht, Youssef Hasan, Camila Haugestad, Christian Haugestad, Jan Havlíček, Earl Hernandez, Vu Hoang, Minsung Hong, Ivana Hromatko, Dzintra Iliško, Hirotaka Imada, Ivana Jakšić, Tomasz Jarmakowski, Harpa Hjördísar Jónsdóttir, Kotrina Kajokaite, Šárka Kaňková, Nicolas Kervyn, Jinseok Kim, Jonas Kunst, Michael Laakasuo, Juan David Leongómez, Norman Li, Junsong Lu, Nathan Lynch, María Maegli, Harry Manley, Gabriela Marcu, Thea Mcafee, Panagiotis Mitkidis, Regina Fernandez-Morales, Coby Morvinski, Haslina Muhamad, Molnár Nándor, Pegah Nejat, Bernardo Costa-Neves, Hoang Nguyen Huy, Mats Olsson, Charity Onyishi, Ike Onyishi, Reegan Orozco, Tobias Otterbring, Ida Ottersen, Gustavo Pacheco-López, Penny Panagiotopoulou, Walter Paniagua, Roksana Parvin, Zoran Pavlović, Pavol Prokop, Emma Raffman, Muhammad Rizwan, Sheila Rojas, Joanna Różycka-Tran, Oscar Sánchez, Heyla Selim, Barış Sevi, Yaniv Shani, Madhulika Shastry, Stefan Stieger, Eunkook Suh, Melati Sumari, Kosuke Takemura, Arnaud Tognetti, Joshua Tybur, Eylul Ucak, Yukiko Uchida, Carmen Baeza-Ugarte, Jaroslava Valentova, Hugo Viciana, Amandine Visine, Jin Wang, X.T. Wang, Illia Yahiiaiev, Roberta Z.R. Trombetta, Rizqy Zein and Iris Žeželj
Additional contact information
Joshua Ackerman: Western Ecological Research Center, University of Michigan [Ann Arbor] - University of Michigan System
Theodore Samore: University of Otago [Dunedin, Nouvelle-Zélande]
Daniel M.T. Fessler: UCLA - Department of Anthropology [Univ California Los Angeles] - UCLA - University of California [Los Angeles] - UC - University of California
Tom Kupfer: Nottingham Trent University
Soyeon Choi: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Wilson Merrell: Center for the Experimental-Philosophical Study of Discrimination
Lene Aarøe: Aarhus University [Aarhus]
Toivo Aavik: Tartu University Hospital
Stephen Acabado: UCLA - University of California [Los Angeles] - UC - University of California
Grace Akello: Gulu University [Gulu, Uganda] - Partenaires INRAE
Ilham Alfian: UNAIR - Universitas Airlangga
Laith Al-Shawaf: University of Colorado [Colorado Springs]
Marinés Alvarez: Universidad del Valle de Guatemala
Jeanine Ammann: Agroscope
Gizem Arikan: Özyeğin University
Saiyeda Asha: IUBAT - International University of Business Agriculture and Technology
Anibal Astobiza: UGR - Universidad de Granada = University of Granada
Pat Barclay: University of Guelph [Guelf, Ontario, Canada]
Fiona Kate Barlow: School of Psychology, University of Queensland - UQ [All campuses : Brisbane, Dutton Park Gatton, Herston, St Lucia and other locations] - The University of Queensland
Lisiane Bizarro: UFRGS - Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul [Porto Alegre]
Paola Bressan: Unipd - Università degli Studi di Padova = University of Padua
Andres Castellanos-Chacón: Universidad El Bosque [Bogota]
Achmad Chusairi: UNAIR - Universitas Airlangga
Brenda Chávez Cosamalón: Sustainability and Education Policy Network,
Jorge Contreras-Garduño: UNAM - Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México = National Autonomous University of Mexico
Arnaud Tognetti: CEE-M - Centre d'Economie de l'Environnement - Montpellier - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro Montpellier - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement - UM - Université de Montpellier

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: Identifying cues to contagious disease is critical for effectively tracking and defending against interpersonal infection threats. People hold lay beliefs about the types of sensory information most relevant for identifying whether others are sick with transmissible illnesses. Are these beliefs universal, or do they vary along cultural and ecological dimensions? Participants in 58 countries (N = 19,217) judged how effective, and how likely they were to use, cues involving each of the five major sensory modalities in an imagined social interaction during a flu outbreak. Belief patterns were strongly consistent across countries (sight > audition > touch > smell > taste), suggesting a largely universal conceptualization of the role of sensory information for interpersonal respiratory disease detection. Results also support a safe senses hypothesis, with perceivers reporting that they would use senses that function at a distance—and thus reduce pathogen transmission risk—more than would be expected given participants' beliefs as to the efficacy of these senses for disease detection. Where societal variation did emerge, it was captured by a cohesive set of socio-ecological factors, including human development, latitude, pathogen prevalence, and population density. Together, these findings reveal a shared lens through which contagious respiratory disease is assessed, one that prioritizes minimizing risk to perceivers, and may offer leverage for designing interventions to improve public health.

Date: 2025-04
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Published in Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, inPress, ⟨10.1016/j.bbi.2025.04.020⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05057990

DOI: 10.1016/j.bbi.2025.04.020

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