Do Experimental Manipulations of Pathogen Avoidance Motivations Influence Conformity?

By conforming to ingroup norms, individuals coordinate with other group members, preserve cohesion, and avoid costs of exclusion. Previous experiments have shown that increased concerns about infectious disease increase conformity. However, coordination with other group members has multiple benefits...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Personality & social psychology bulletin 2024-07, Vol.50 (7), p.1051-1065
Main Authors: van Leeuwen, Florian, Jaeger, Bastian, Sleegers, Willem W.A., Petersen, Michael Bang
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Avoidance behavior
Communicable Diseases - psychology
Conformity
Coordination
Female
Function
Humans
Infectious diseases
Male
Middle Aged
Motivation
Pathogens
Social Conformity
Young Adult
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Summary:By conforming to ingroup norms, individuals coordinate with other group members, preserve cohesion, and avoid costs of exclusion. Previous experiments have shown that increased concerns about infectious disease increase conformity. However, coordination with other group members has multiple benefits, most of which exist independent of pathogenic infection. Hence, a strong causal effect of pathogen avoidance motivations on conformity seems unlikely. Results from five experiments (N = 1,931) showed only limited support for the hypothesis that experimentally increasing pathogen avoidance motivations influences conformity. Overall, our findings are not consistent with the notion that the human mind contains a fast-acting psychological mechanism that regulates conformity as a function of short-term pathogen avoidance motivations.
ISSN:0146-1672
1552-7433
1552-7433
DOI:10.1177/01461672231160655