Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Recent work suggests that the psychology of pathogen-avoidance has wide-reaching effects on how people interact with the world. These processes - part of what has been referred to as the behavioural immune system - are, in a way, our 'evolved' health psychology. However, scholars have scarcely investigated how the behavioural immune system relates to health-protective behaviours. The current research attempts to fill this gap.
DESIGN: Across two cross-sectional studies (N = 386 and 470, respectively), we examined the relationship between pathogen-avoidance motives and health-protective behaviour.
OUTCOME MEASURES: The studies used self-reported measures of attitude and intention as indicators of health-protective behaviour.
RESULTS: Data collected in Study 1 revealed that pathogen-avoidance motivation related to participants' attitude and intention towards sexually transmitted infections screening. High levels of pathogen-avoidance motivation were also related to having had fewer sexual partners, which partially mediated the effect of pathogen-avoidance variables on testing motivation. Study 2 extended these findings by showing moderate associations between pathogen-avoidance motivation and a broad range of health-protective behaviours, including but not limited to pathogen-related health concerns.
CONCLUSION: We argue that understanding and targeting pathogen-avoidance psychology can add novel and important understanding of health-protective behaviour.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 959–975 |
| Number of pages | 17 |
| Journal | Psychology & Health |
| Volume | 31 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| Early online date | 6 Apr 2016 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2016 |