Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia.
Psychol Health. 2012;27(4):491-506. doi: 10.1080/08870446.2011.603424. Epub 2011 Aug 1.
Medical conditions that are non-contagious, but that appear contagious, seem to result in the sufferer being avoided. Error management theory (EMT), suggests that such false alarms occur because the cost of infection poses a greater threat to ones fitness than avoidance. Study 1 attempted to demonstrate a disease-related false alarm effect by asking participants, to evaluate a series of vignettes, featuring people with infectious diseases, non-infectious diseases that looked infectious and non-infectious diseases that did not. Judgements of contracting infection under varying levels of contact, and desire to avoid were obtained. Consistent with EMT, a false alarm effect was evident. Study 2 examined the importance of the face as a key indicator of real and apparent infection, by determining whether facial symptoms result in a greater desire to avoid people with infectious and non-infectious diseases. Consistent with expectation, participants reported a greater desire to avoid people with facially displayed symptoms. Together, these results support the idea that humans have evolved a general tendency to avoid individuals with disease signs, especially if displayed upon the face. One consequence is that where a facially displayed disease sign persists, even if known to be benign, its bearer will experience chronic avoidance.
非传染性但表现出传染性的医学病症似乎会导致患者被回避。错误管理理论（EMT）表明，这种虚假警报的出现是因为感染的代价对个体的适应性构成了更大的威胁，而不是回避。研究 1 通过要求参与者评估一系列描述患有传染病、看起来具有传染性的非传染性疾病和没有传染性的非传染性疾病的情景来尝试证明与疾病相关的虚假警报效应。在不同接触水平下获得了感染的判断和回避的意愿。与 EMT 一致，出现了虚假警报效应。研究 2 通过确定面部症状是否会导致人们更愿意回避患有传染性和非传染性疾病的人，研究了面部作为真实和明显感染的关键指标的重要性。与预期一致，参与者报告说更愿意回避面部有症状的人。总之，这些结果支持了人类已经进化出一种普遍倾向，即回避有疾病迹象的个体的观点，尤其是当这些迹象出现在面部时。其后果之一是，即使知道面部显示的疾病是良性的，如果持续存在，其携带者将经历慢性回避。
