The Behavioral Immune System

Infectious diseases pose a substantial threat to human health.  But it can be costly to actually mount an immune response. Therefore behavioral avoidance of disease-causing pathogens provides a crude first line of defense against infectious diseases.  What are the psychological mechanisms that comprise this "behavioral immune system"?  What are the implications for social cognition and interpersonal behavior?  What are the additional implications for human culture? And for human health?  Over the last several years, I've been pursuing several lines of research that address those questions.

Representative Publications:

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.  [pdf]

Schaller, M. (2011).  The behavioural immune system and the psychology of human sociality.  Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 366, 3418-3426.   [pdf]

Schaller, M., & Park, J. H. (2011).  The behavioral immune system (and why it matters).  Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20, 99-103.  [pdf]

Neuberg, S. L., Kenrick, D. T., & Schaller, M. (2011).  Human threat management systems: Self-protection and disease-avoidance.  Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 35, 1042-1051.  [pdf]

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.  [pdf]

Schaller, M., & Murray, D. R. (2011).  Infectious disease and the creation of culture.  In M. Gelfand, C.-y. Chiu, & Y.-y. Hong (Eds.), Advances in Culture and Psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 99-151).  New York: Oxford University Press.  [pdf]

Schaller, M., Miller, G. E., Gervais, W. M., Yager, S., & Chen, E. (2010).  Mere visual perception of other people's' disease symptoms facilitates a more aggressive immune response.  Psychological Science, 21, 649-652.  [pdf]

Hoben, A. D., Buunk, A. P., Fincher, C. L., Thornhill, R., & Schaller, M. (2010).  On the adaptive origins and maladaptive consequences of inbreeding: Parasite prevalence, immune functioning, and consanguineous marriage.  Evolutionary Psychology, 8, 658-676.  [pdf]

Thornhill, R., Fincher, C. L., Murray, D. R., & Schaller, M. (2010).  Zoonotic and non-zoonotic diseases in relation in human personality and societal values: Support for the parasite-stress model.  Evolutionary Psychology, 8, 151-169.  [pdf]

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.  [pdf]

Schaller, M., & Murray, D. R. (2010).  Infectious diseases and the evolution of cross-cultural differences.  In M. Schaller, A. Norenzayan, S. J. Heine, T. Yamagishi, & T. Kameda (Eds.), Evolution, culture, and the human mind (pp. 243-256).  New York: Psychology Press.  [pdf]

Duncan, L. A., & Schaller, M. (2009).  Prejudicial attitudes toward older adults may be exaggerated when people feel vulnerable to infectious disease: Evidence and implications.  Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 9, 97-115.  [pdf]

Duncan, L. A., Schaller, M., & Park, J. H. (2009).  Perceived vulnerability to disease: Development and validation of a 15-item self-report instrument.  Personality and Individual Differences, 47, 541-546.  [pdf]

Park, J. H., & Schaller, M. (2009).  Parasites, minds, and cultures.  The Psychologist, 22, 942-945.  [pdf]

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.  [pdf]

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.  [pdf]

Schaller, M., & Duncan, L. A. (2007).  The behavioral immune system: Its evolution and social psychological implications.  In J. P. Forgas, M. G. Haselton, & W. von Hippel (Eds.), Evolution and the social mind: Evolutionary psychology and social cognition (pp. 293-307).  New York: Psychology Press.  [doc]

Park, J. H., Schaller, M., & Crandall, C. S.  (2007).  Pathogen-avoidance mechanisms and the stigmatization of obese people.  Evolution and Human Behavior, 28, 410-414.   [pdf]

Schaller, M. (2006). Parasites, behavioral defenses, and the social psychological mechanisms through which cultures are evoked.  Psychological Inquiry, 17, 96-101.  [pdf]

Faulkner, J., Schaller, M., Park, J. H., & Duncan, L. A. (2004).  Evolved disease-avoidance mechanisms and contemporary xenophobic attitudes.  Group Processes and Intergroup Behavior, 7, 333-353.  [pdf]

Park, J. H., Faulkner, J., & Schaller, M. (2003).  Evolved disease-avoidance processes and contemporary anti-social behavior:  Prejudicial attitudes and avoidance of people with disabilities.   Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 27, 65-87.  [pdf]