Explaining illness with evil:: Pathogen prevalence fosters moral vitalism

Brock Bastian; Christin-Melanie Vauclair; Loughnan Steve; Paul Bain; Ashwini Ashokkumar; Maja Becker; Michał Bilewicz; Emma Collier-Baker; Carla Crespo; Paul Eastwick; Ronald Fischer; Malte Friese; Ángel  Gómez; Valeschka Guerra; Jose Luis Guevara; Katja Hanke; Nic Hooper; Li-Li Huang; Shi Junqi; Minoru Karasawa; Peter Kuppens; Siri Leknes; Müjde  Peker; Cesar Pelay; Afroditi Pina; Marianna Sachkova; Tamar Saguy; Mia Silfver-Kuhalampi; Florencia  Sortheix; Jennifer Tong; Victoria Yeung; Jacob Duffy; William Swann Jr.

doi:10.1098/rspb.2019.1576

Explaining illness with evil: Pathogen prevalence fosters moral vitalism

Brock Bastian, Christin-Melanie Vauclair, Loughnan Steve, Paul Bain, Ashwini Ashokkumar, Maja Becker, Michał Bilewicz, Emma Collier-Baker, Carla Crespo, Paul Eastwick, Ronald Fischer, Malte Friese, Ángel Gómez, Valeschka Guerra, Jose Luis Guevara, Katja Hanke, Nic Hooper, Li-Li Huang, Shi Junqi, Minoru KarasawaPeter Kuppens, Siri Leknes, Müjde Peker, Cesar Pelay, Afroditi Pina, Marianna Sachkova, Tamar Saguy, Mia Silfver-Kuhalampi, Florencia Sortheix, Jennifer Tong, Victoria Yeung, Jacob Duffy, William Swann Jr.

Department of Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

14 Citations (SciVal)

37 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Pathogens represent a significant threat to human health leading to the emergence of strategies designed to help manage their negative impact. We examined how spiritual beliefs developed to explain and predict the devastating effects of pathogens and spread of infectious disease. Analysis of existing data in studies 1 and 2 suggests that moral vitalism (beliefs about spiritual forces of evil) is higher in geographical regions characterized by historical higher levels of pathogens. Furthermore, drawing on a sample of 3140 participants from 28 countries in study 3, we found that historical higher levels of pathogens were associated with stronger endorsement of moral vitalistic beliefs. Furthermore, endorsement of moral vitalistic beliefs statistically mediated the previously reported relationship between pathogen prevalence and conservative ideologies, suggesting these beliefs reinforce behavioural strategies which function to prevent infection. We conclude that moral vitalism may be adaptive: by emphasizing concerns over contagion, it provided an explanatory model that enabled human groups to reduce rates of contagious disease.

Original language	English
Article number	20191576
Pages (from-to)	1-10
Number of pages	10
Journal	Proceedings of the Royal Society B
Volume	286
Issue number	1914
Early online date	30 Oct 2019
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.1576
Publication status	Published - 30 Nov 2019

Keywords

disease
morality
pathogens
spiritual belief
vitalism

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology
General Immunology and Microbiology
General Environmental Science
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1098/rspb.2019.1576

Moral Vitalism and Pathogens_ProceedingsB_REVISION-FINAL#5.PDF
Copyright © 2019 The Author(s). The final publication is available at Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences via https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.1576
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Cite this

Bastian, B., Vauclair, C.-M., Steve, L., Bain, P., Ashokkumar, A., Becker, M., Bilewicz, M., Collier-Baker, E., Crespo, C., Eastwick, P., Fischer, R., Friese, M., Gómez, Á., Guerra, V., Guevara, J. L., Hanke, K., Hooper, N., Huang, L.-L., Junqi, S., ... Swann Jr., W. (2019). Explaining illness with evil: Pathogen prevalence fosters moral vitalism. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 286(1914), 1-10. Article 20191576. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.1576

Bastian, B, Vauclair, C-M, Steve, L, Bain, P, Ashokkumar, A, Becker, M, Bilewicz, M, Collier-Baker, E, Crespo, C, Eastwick, P, Fischer, R, Friese, M, Gómez, Á, Guerra, V, Guevara, JL, Hanke, K, Hooper, N, Huang, L-L, Junqi, S, Karasawa, M, Kuppens, P, Leknes, S, Peker, M, Pelay, C, Pina, A, Sachkova, M, Saguy, T, Silfver-Kuhalampi, M, Sortheix, F, Tong, J, Yeung, V, Duffy, J & Swann Jr., W 2019, 'Explaining illness with evil: Pathogen prevalence fosters moral vitalism', Proceedings of the Royal Society B, vol. 286, no. 1914, 20191576, pp. 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.1576

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