As the world grapples with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, it is ever more critical to understand how pathogens affect human social behaviors and attitudes. We review recent evidence for the parasite stress theory, which posits that pathogen threats may have led to psychological and cultural adaptations in terms of collectivism and outgroup prejudice. Although there is strong literature support that behavioral immune responses might have contributed to collectivistic norms, the link between pathogen prevalence and outgroup prejudice is less clear. To explain this, we proposed a new hypothesis, arguing that outgroup prejudice as an undesirable side effect of behavioral immune systems might be curtailed by collectivistic norms and centralized authorities, which, in turn, reflect cultural adaptations to cooperation in high-pathogen environments. This perspective provides novel explanations of the cultural difference in the phenomena of xenophobia and racial prejudice during pandemics.
Boyd, R., & Richerson, P. J. (2005). The Origin and Evolution of Cultures. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Brewer, M. B. (1999). The Psychology of Prejudice: Ingroup Love and Outgroup Hate? Journal of Social Issues, 55, 429-444. https://doi.org/10.1111/0022-4537.00126
Brewer, M. B. (2007). The Importance of Being We: Human Nature and Intergroup Relations. American Psychologist, 62, 728-738. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.62.8.728
Brewer, M. B., & Chen, Y.-R. (2007). Where (Who) Are Collectives in Collectivism? Toward Conceptual Clarification of Individualism and Collectivism. Psychological Review, 114, 133-151. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.114.1.133
Brewer, M. B., & Yuki, M. (2007). Culture and Social Identity. In S. Kitayama, & D. Cohen (Eds.), Handbook of Cultural Psychology (pp. 307-322). New York, NY: Guilford.
Cameron, J. A., Alvarez, J. M., Ruble, D. N., & Fuligni, A. J. (2001). Children’s Lay Theories about Ingroups and Outgroups: Reconceptualizing Research on Prejudice. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5, 118-128. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327957PSPR0502_3
Cashdan, E., & Steele, M. (2013). Pathogen Prevalence, Group Bias, and Collectivism in the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample. Human Nature, 24, 59-75. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-012-9159-3
Chang, L., Mak, M. C. K., Li, T., Wu, B. P., Chen, B. B., & Lu, H. J. (2011). Cultural Adaptations to Environmental Variability: An Evolutionary Account of East-West Differences. Educational Psychology Review, 23, 99-129. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-010-9149-0
Chen, X. P., Wasti, S. A., & Triandis, H. C. (2007). When Does Group Norm or Group Identity Predict Cooperation in a Public Goods Dilemma? The Moderating Effects of Idiocentrism and Allocentrism. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 31, 259-276. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2006.02.004
Chudek, M., & Henrich, J. (2011). Culture-Gene Coevolution, Norm-Psychology and the Emergence of Human Prosociality. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15, 218-226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2011.03.003
Clissold, E., Nylander, D., Watson, C., & Ventriglio, A. (2020). Pandemics and Prejudice. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 66, 421-423. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020764020937873
Cottrell, C. A., & Neuberg, S. L. (2005). Different Emotional Reactions to Different Groups: A Sociofunctional Threat-Based Approach to “Prejudice”. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 770-789. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.88.5.770
Croucher, S. M., Nguyen, T., & Rahmani, D. (2020). Prejudice toward Asian Americans in the Covid-19 Pandemic: The Effects of Social Media Use in the United States. Frontiers in Communication, 5, Article No. 39. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2020.00039
Diamond, J. (1997). Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.
Fabrega Jr., H. (1997). Earliest Phases in the Evolution of Sickness and Healing. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 11, 26-55. https://doi.org/10.1525/maq.1997.11.1.26
Faulkner, J., Schaller, M., Park, J. H., & Duncan, L. A. (2004). Evolved Disease-Avoidance Mechanisms and Contemporary Xenophobic Attitudes. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 7, 333-353. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430204046142
Fincher, C. L., & Thornhill, R. (2012). Parasite-Stress Promotes in-Group Assortative Sociality: The Cases of Strong Family Ties and Heightened Religiosity. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 35, 61-79. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X11000021
Fincher, C. L., Thornhill, R., Murray, D. R., & Schaller, M. (2008). Pathogen Prevalence Predicts Human Cross-Cultural Variability in Individualism/Collectivism. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 275, 1279-1285. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2008.0094
Germani, A., Buratta, L., Delvecchio, E., & Mazzeschi, C. (2020). Emerging Adults and COVID-19: The Role of Individualism-Collectivism on Perceived Risks and Psychological Maladjustment. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17, 3497. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17103497
Gilles, I., Bangerter, A., Clémence, A., Green, E. G. T., Krings, F., Mouton, A., Rigaud, D., Staerklé, C., & Wagner-Egger, P. (2013). Collective Symbolic Coping with Disease Threat and Othering: A Case Study of Avian Influenza. British Journal of Social Psychology, 52, 83-102. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8309.2011.02048.x
Guterres, A. (2020). COVID-19 Does Not Care Who We Are, Where We Live, or What We Believe [Tweet; Attached Video]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/antonioguterres/status/1258613180030431233?lang=en
Hruschka, D. J., & Henrich, J. (2013). Institutions, Parasites and the Persistence of In-Group Preferences. PLoS One, 8, e63642. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0063642
Hruschka, D., Efferson, C., Jiang, T., Falletta-Cowden, A., Sigurdsson, S., McNamara, R., Sands, M., Munira, S., Slingerland, E., & Henrich, J. (2014). Impartial Institutions, Pathogen Stress and the Expanding Social Network. Human Nature, 25, 567-579. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-014-9217-0
Huang, J. Y., Sedlovskaya, A., Ackerman, J. M., & Bargh, J. A. (2011). Immunizing against Prejudice: Effects of Disease Protection on Attitudes toward Out-Groups. Psychological Science, 22, 1550-1556. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611417261
Kim, H. S., Sherman, D. K., & Updegraff, J. A. (2016). Fear of Ebola: The Influence of Collectivism on Xenophobic Threat Responses. Psychological Science, 27, 935-944. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797616642596
Kim, H., & Markus, H. R. (1999). Deviance or Uniqueness, Harmony or Conformity? A Cultural Analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 785-800. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.77.4.785
Klavina, L., Buunk, A. P., & Pollet, T. V. (2011). Out-Group Mating Threat and Disease Threat Increase Implicit Negative Attitudes toward the Out-Group among Men. Frontiers in Psychology, 2, Article No. 76. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00076
Markel, H. (1999). Quarantine! East European Jewish Immigrants and the New York City Epidemics of 1892 (1st ed.). Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Mummendey, A., Simon, B., Dietze, C., Grunert., M., Haeger, G., Kessler, S., Lettgen, S., & Schäferhoff, S. (1992). Categorization Is Not Enough: Intergroup Discrimination in Negative Outcome Allocations. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 128, 125-144. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1031(92)90035-I
Murray, D. R., & Schaller, M. (2010). Historical Prevalence of Infectious Diseases within 230 Geopolitical Regions: A Tool for Investigating Origins of Culture. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 41, 99-108. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022109349510
Murray, D. R., & Schaller, M. (2012). Threat(s) and Conformity Deconstructed: Perceived Threat of Infectious Disease and Its Implications for Conformist Attitudes and Behavior. European Journal of Social Psychology, 42, 180-188. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.863
Murray, D. R., Schaller, M., & Suedfeld, P. (2013). Pathogens and Politics: Further Evidence That Parasite Prevalence Predicts Authoritarianism. PLoS ONE, 8, e62275. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0062275
Murray, D. R., Trudeau, R., & Schaller, M. (2011). On the Origins of Cultural Differences in Conformity: Four Tests of the Pathogen Prevalence Hypothesis. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37, 318-329. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167210394451
Navarrete, C. D., & Fessler, D. M. (2006). Disease Avoidance and Ethnocentrism: The Effects of Disease Vulnerability and Disgust Sensitivity on Intergroup Attitudes. Evolution and Human Behavior, 27, 270-282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2005.12.001
O’Shea, B. A., Watson, D. G., Brown, G. D., & Fincher, C. L. (2020). Infectious Disease Prevalence, Not Race Exposure, Predicts Both Implicit and Explicit Racial Prejudice across the United States. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 11, 345-355. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550619862319
Parmet, W. E. (2007). Legal Power and Legal Rights—Isolation and Quarantine in the Case of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis. New England Journal of Medicine, 357, 433-435. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp078133
Peng, M., Chang, L., & Zhou, R.L. (2013). Physiological and Behavioral Responses to Strangers Compared to Friends as a Source of Disgust. Evolution and Human Behavior, 34, 94-98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2012.10.002
Prati, G., & Pietrantoni, L. (2016). Knowledge, Risk Perceptions, and Xenophobic Attitudes: Evidence from Italy during the Ebola Outbreak. Risk Analysis, 36, 2000-2010. https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.12537
Roberto, K. J., Johnson, A. F., & Rauhaus, B. M. (2020). Stigmatization and Prejudice during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Administrative Theory & Praxis, 42, 364-378. https://doi.org/10.1080/10841806.2020.1782128
Romano, A., Balliet, D., Yamagishi, T., & Liu, J. H. (2017). Parochial Trust and Cooperation across 17 Societies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 114, 12702-12707. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1712921114
Rzymski, P., & Nowicki, M. (2020). COVID-19-Related Prejudice towards Asian Medical Students: A Consequence of SARS-CoV-2 Fears in Poland. Journal of Infection and Public Health, 13, 873-876. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jiph.2020.04.013
Schaller, M., & Murray, D. R. (2008). Pathogens, Personality, and Culture: Disease Prevalence Predicts Worldwide Variability in Sociosexuality, Extraversion, and Openness to Experience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 212-221. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.95.1.212
Schaller, M., & Neuberg, S. L. (2012). Danger, Disease, and the Nature of Prejudice(s). Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 46, 1-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-394281-4.00001-5
Schaller, M., & Park, J. H. (2011). The Behavioral Immune System (and Why It Matters). Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20, 99-103. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721411402596
Sorokowski, P., Groyecka, A., Kowal, M., Sorokowska, A., Białek, M., Lebuda, I., Zdybek, P., & Karwowski, M. (2020). Can Information about Pandemic Increases Negative Attitudes toward Foreign Groups: A Case of COVID-19 Outbreak. Sustainability, 12, 4912. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/j23vt
Stevenson, R. J., & Repacholi, B. M. (2005). Does the Source of an Interpersonal Odour Affect Disgust? A Disease Risk Model and Its Alternatives. European Journal of Social Psychology, 35, 375-401. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.263
Tabri, N., Hollingshead, S., & Wohl, M. (2020). Framing Covid-19 as an Existential Threat Predicts Anxious Arousal and Prejudice towards Chinese People. PsyArXiv. https://psyarxiv.com/mpbtr/
Talhelm, T., Zhang, X., Oishi, S., Shimin, C., Duan, D., Lan, X., & Kitayama, S. (2014). Large-Scale Psychological Differences within China Explained by Rice versus Wheat Agriculture. Science, 344, 603-608. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1246850
The Star (2020). Wuhan Virus: China Mobilises Medical Teams to Fight New Coronavirus. The Star. https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2020/01/26/wuhan-virus-china-mobilises-medical-teams-to-fight-new-coronavirus
Tybur, J. M., Inbar, Y., Aarøe, L., Barclay, P., Barlow, F. K., De Barra, M., Consedine, N. S. et al. (2016). Parasite Stress and Pathogen Avoidance Relate to Distinct Dimensions of Political Ideology across 30 Nations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 113, 12408-12413. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1607398113
Tybur, J. M., Inbar, Y., Güler, E., & Molho, C. (2015). Is the Relationship between Pathogen Avoidance and Ideological Conservatism Explained by Sexual Strategies? Evolution and Human Behavior, 36, 489-497. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2015.01.006
Vachuska, K. (2020). Initial Effects of the Coronavirus Pandemic on Racial Prejudice in the United States: Evidence from Google Trends. https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/bgpk3/.
Van de Vliert, E., Yang, H., Wang, Y., & Ren, X. P. (2013). Climato-Economic Imprints on Chinese Collectivism. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 44, 589-605. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022112463605
Wu, B. P., & Chang, L. (2012). The Social Impact of Pathogen Threat: How Disease Salience Influences Conformity. Personality and Individual Differences, 53, 50-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2012.02.023
Yamagishi, T., Jin, N., & Miller, A. S. (1998). In-Group Bias and Culture of Collectivism. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 1, 315-328. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-839X.00020
Zhu, N. & Chang, L. (2019). Education and Parenting in China. In E. Sorbing, & J. E. Lansford (Eds.), School Systems, Parental Behavior, and Academic Achievement: An International Perspective (pp. 15-28). Cham: Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28277-6_2
Zhu, N., Lu, H. J., & Chang, L. (2020). Trust as Social Investment: A Life-History Model of Environmental Effects on Ingroup and Outgroup Trust. Personality and Individual Differences, 168, Article ID: 110303. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110303
Zhu, N., O, J. Q., Lu, H. J., & Chang, L. (2020). Debate: Facing Uncertainty with (out) a Sense of Control-Cultural Influence on Adolescents’ Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 25, 173-174. https://doi.org/10.1111/camh.12408