IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0238015.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Disease avoidance in the time of COVID-19: The behavioral immune system is associated with concern and preventative health behaviors

Author

Listed:
  • Natalie J Shook
  • Barış Sevi
  • Jerin Lee
  • Benjamin Oosterhoff
  • Holly N Fitzgerald

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) poses a serious global health threat. Without a vaccine, behavior change is the most effective means of reducing disease transmission. Identifying psychological factors that may encourage engagement in preventative health behaviors is crucial. The behavioral immune system (BIS) represents a set of psychological processes thought to promote health by encouraging disease avoidance behaviors. This study examined whether individual differences in BIS reactivity (germ aversion, pathogen disgust sensitivity) were associated with concern about COVID-19 and engagement in recommended preventative health behaviors (social distancing, handwashing, cleaning/disinfecting, avoiding touching face, wearing facemasks). From March 20 to 23, 2020, a US national sample (N = 1019) completed an online survey. Germ aversion and pathogen disgust sensitivity were the two variables most consistently associated with COVID-19 concern and preventative health behaviors, while accounting for demographic, health, and psychosocial covariates. Findings have implications for the development of interventions intended to increase preventative health behaviors.

Suggested Citation

  • Natalie J Shook & Barış Sevi & Jerin Lee & Benjamin Oosterhoff & Holly N Fitzgerald, 2020. "Disease avoidance in the time of COVID-19: The behavioral immune system is associated with concern and preventative health behaviors," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(8), pages 1-15, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0238015
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0238015
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0238015
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0238015&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0238015?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert West & Susan Michie & G. James Rubin & Richard Amlôt, 2020. "Applying principles of behaviour change to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 4(5), pages 451-459, May.
    2. Paul T E Cusack, 2020. "The Human Brain," Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research, Biomedical Research Network+, LLC, vol. 31(3), pages 24261-24266, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yi Ding & Tingting Ji & Yongyu Guo, 2021. "Helping While Social Distancing: Pathogen Avoidance Motives Influence People’s Helping Intentions during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-10, November.
    2. Arul Jayendra Pradeep Velusamy & Lakshmi Sravanti, 2022. "Sociocultural responses during the evolving coronavirus pandemic in India: A critical evaluation through the lens of Behavioural Immune System," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 68(3), pages 697-698, May.
    3. Joana Berger-Estilita & Sandra Abegglen & Nadja Hornburg & Robert Greif & Alexander Fuchs, 2022. "Health-Promoting Quality of Life at Work during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A 12-Month Longitudinal Study on the Work-Related Sense of Coherence in Acute Care Healthcare Professionals," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-13, May.
    4. Rachel Leonard & Sean R. O'Connor & Jennifer Hanratty & Ciara Keenan & Yuan Chi & Jenny Ferguson & Ariana Axiaq & Anna Volz & Ceri Welsh & Kerry Campbell & Victoria Hawkins & Sarah Miller & Declan Bra, 2024. "Psychological and psychosocial determinants of COVID‐related handwashing behaviours: A systematic review," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(3), September.
    5. Zeyu Liu & Huijun Geng & Hao Chen & Meng Zhu & Tingshao Zhu, 2020. "Exploring the Mechanisms of Influence on COVID-19 Preventive Behaviors in China’s Social Media Users," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(23), pages 1-14, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dominic Holland & Oleksandr Frei & Rahul Desikan & Chun-Chieh Fan & Alexey A Shadrin & Olav B Smeland & V S Sundar & Paul Thompson & Ole A Andreassen & Anders M Dale, 2020. "Beyond SNP heritability: Polygenicity and discoverability of phenotypes estimated with a univariate Gaussian mixture model," PLOS Genetics, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(5), pages 1-30, May.
    2. Hubert, Philipp & Abdel Hadi, Sascha & Mojzisch, Andreas & Häusser, Jan Alexander, 2022. "The effects of organizational climate on adherence to guidelines for COVID-19 prevention," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    3. Julia Berezutskaya & Zachary V Freudenburg & Umut Güçlü & Marcel A J van Gerven & Nick F Ramsey, 2020. "Brain-optimized extraction of complex sound features that drive continuous auditory perception," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(7), pages 1-34, July.
    4. Abigail B. Schneider & Bridget Leonard, 2022. "From anxiety to control: Mask‐wearing, perceived marketplace influence, and emotional well‐being during the COVID‐19 pandemic," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(1), pages 97-119, March.
    5. Geonhui Lee & Woong Choi & Hanjin Jo & Wookhyun Park & Jaehyo Kim, 2020. "Analysis of motor control strategy for frontal and sagittal planes of circular tracking movements using visual feedback noise from velocity change and depth information," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-22, November.
    6. Odelaisy León-Triana & Julián Pérez-Beteta & David Albillo & Ana Ortiz de Mendivil & Luis Pérez-Romasanta & Elisabet González-Del Portillo & Manuel Llorente & Natalia Carballo & Estanislao Arana & Víc, 2021. "Brain Metastasis Response to Stereotactic Radio Surgery: A Mathematical Approach," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-19, March.
    7. Mirren Charnley & Saba Islam & Guneet K. Bindra & Jeremy Engwirda & Julian Ratcliffe & Jiangtao Zhou & Raffaele Mezzenga & Mark D. Hulett & Kyunghoon Han & Joshua T. Berryman & Nicholas P. Reynolds, 2022. "Neurotoxic amyloidogenic peptides in the proteome of SARS-COV2: potential implications for neurological symptoms in COVID-19," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.
    8. Samy Castro & Wael El-Deredy & Demian Battaglia & Patricio Orio, 2020. "Cortical ignition dynamics is tightly linked to the core organisation of the human connectome," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(7), pages 1-23, July.
    9. Nguyen, Ha Trong & Brinkman, Sally & Le, Huong Thu & Zubrick, Stephen R. & Mitrou, Francis, 2022. "Gender differences in time allocation contribute to differences in developmental outcomes in children and adolescents," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    10. Gregor Wolbring, 2022. "Auditing the ‘Social’ of Quantum Technologies: A Scoping Review," Societies, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-38, March.
    11. April R. Kriebel & Joshua D. Welch, 2022. "UINMF performs mosaic integration of single-cell multi-omic datasets using nonnegative matrix factorization," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-17, December.
    12. Boada, Júlia Pareto & Maestre, Begoña Román & Genís, Carme Torras, 2021. "The ethical issues of social assistive robotics: A critical literature review," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    13. Hamed Nili & Alexander Walther & Arjen Alink & Nikolaus Kriegeskorte, 2020. "Inferring exemplar discriminability in brain representations," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(6), pages 1-28, June.
    14. Valtteri Arstila & Alexandra L Georgescu & Henri Pesonen & Daniel Lunn & Valdas Noreika & Christine M Falter-Wagner, 2020. "Event timing in human vision: Modulating factors and independent functions," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(8), pages 1-22, August.
    15. Don, Arjuna P.H. & Peters, James F. & Ramanna, Sheela & Tozzi, Arturo, 2021. "Quaternionic views of rs-fMRI hierarchical brain activation regions. Discovery of multilevel brain activation region intensities in rs-fMRI video frames," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    16. Linzmajer, Marc & Hubert, Mirja & Hubert, Marco, 2021. "It’s about the process, not the result: An fMRI approach to explore the encoding of explicit and implicit price information," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    17. Cristina Lázaro-Pérez & José Ángel Martínez-López & José Gómez-Galán, 2020. "Addictions in Spanish College Students in Confinement Times: Preventive and Social Perspective," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-21, October.
    18. Yashika Arora & Pushpinder Walia & Mitsuhiro Hayashibe & Makii Muthalib & Shubhajit Roy Chowdhury & Stephane Perrey & Anirban Dutta, 2021. "Grey-box modeling and hypothesis testing of functional near-infrared spectroscopy-based cerebrovascular reactivity to anodal high-definition tDCS in healthy humans," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(10), pages 1-38, October.
    19. Panarello, Demetrio & Tassinari, Giorgio, 2022. "One year of COVID-19 in Italy: are containment policies enough to shape the pandemic pattern?," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    20. Elvisa Drishti & Bresena Kopliku & Drini Imami, 2022. "Active political engagement, political patronage and local labour markets – The example of Shkoder," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 44(6), pages 1118-1142, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0238015. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.