Survival of the fittest in the pandemic age: Introducing disease-related social Darwinism.

ABSTRACT: COVID-19 was a harsh reminder that diseases are an aspect of human existence and mortality. It was also a live experiment in the formation and alteration of disease-related attitudes. Not only are these attitudes relevant to an individual's self-protective behavior, but they also seem to be associated with social and political attitudes more broadly. One of these attitudes is Social Darwinism, which holds that a pandemic benefits society by enabling nature "to weed out the weak". In two countries (N = 300, N = 533), we introduce and provide evidence for the reliability, validity, and usefulness of the Disease-Related Social Darwinism (DRSD) Short Scale measuring this concept. Results indicate that DRSD is meaningful related to other central political attitudes like Social Dominance Orienta

SUBMITTER: Nachtwey P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10032491 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature