Mental Representations of Sickness Positively Relate to Adaptive Health Behaviors.

ABSTRACT: An ecological approach to social perception states that impressions of faces have functional value in that they guide adaptive behavior ensuring people's survival. For example, people may avoid others whose faces appear sick to avoid an illness representing a survival threat. We broadened the ecological approach in the current work by examining whether merely thinking about what illnesses on faces look like (i.e., how sickness on faces is represented) holds functional value in guiding behavior to ensure survival. Using an example of a real illness threat as proof of concept, we showed that people self-reported performing more adaptive health behaviors in response to COVID-19 if they had sicker representations of COVID-19 on faces (Experiment 1a). These sicker representations of COVI

SUBMITTER: Ojeda JT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10355308 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul-Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature