Exposure and Aversion to Human Transmissible Diseases Predict Conservative Ideological and Partisan Preferences.

ABSTRACT: The objective prevalence of and subjective vulnerability to infectious diseases are associated with greater ingroup preference, conformity, and traditionalism. However, evidence directly testing the link between infectious diseases and political ideology and partisanship is lacking. Across four studies, including a large sample representative of the U.S. population (N > 12,000), we demonstrate that higher environmental levels of human transmissible diseases and avoidance of germs from human carriers predict conservative ideological and partisan preferences. During the COVID-19 pandemic (N = 848), we replicated this germ aversion finding and determined that these conservative preferences were primarily driven by avoidance of germs from outgroups (foreigners) rather than ingrou

SUBMITTER: O'Shea BA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8251465 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature