Szymkow Aleksandra, Frankowska Natalia, Galasinska Katarzyna
Center for Research on Biological Basis of Social Behavior, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland.
Front Psychol. 2021 May 17;12:647881. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.647881. eCollection 2021.
Negative attitudes and stigmatization can originate from the perception of a disease-related threat. Following the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is often suggested that incidents of discriminatory behavior are the result of defense mechanisms aimed at avoiding pathogens. According to the behavioral immune system theory, people are motivated to distance themselves from individuals who show signs of infection, or who are only heuristically associated with a disease, primarily because of the disgust they evoke. In this paper we focus on negative attitudes toward gay men and lesbians who are among social groups that have been persistently framed as "unclean." In our correlational study ( = 500 heterosexual participants; Polish sample data collected during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Poland, in March/April 2020) we tested moderation models derived from the behavioral immune system theory. Specifically, we investigated whether perceived vulnerability to disease and perceived threat of contracting COVID-19 moderate the relation between disgust and homonegativity. We found that sexual disgust (but not pathogen nor moral disgust) predicted homonegative attitudes. This effect was stronger for participants expressing higher levels of perceived vulnerability to disease but was not dependent on the perception of the COVID-19 threat. The results reaffirm previous evidence indicating a pivotal role of disgust in disease-avoidance mechanisms. They also point to functional flexibility of the behavioral immune system by demonstrating the moderating role of perceived vulnerability to disease in shaping homonegative attitudes. Finally, they show that the threat of COVID-19 does not strengthen the relationship between disgust and homonegativity.
消极态度和污名化可能源于对疾病相关威胁的认知。在新冠疫情蔓延之后，人们常认为歧视行为事件是旨在避免病原体的防御机制的结果。根据行为免疫系统理论，人们主要出于对感染者或仅在启发式层面与疾病相关联者所引发的厌恶，而有动机与表现出感染迹象的人保持距离。在本文中，我们关注对男同性恋者和女同性恋者的消极态度，他们属于一直被定性为“不洁”的社会群体。在我们的相关研究中（500名异性恋参与者；波兰样本数据于2020年3月/4月波兰首次新冠疫情封锁期间收集），我们测试了源自行为免疫系统理论的调节模型。具体而言，我们调查了感知到的疾病易感性和感染新冠病毒的感知威胁是否会调节厌恶与同性恋消极态度之间的关系。我们发现性厌恶（而非病原体厌恶或道德厌恶）可预测同性恋消极态度。对于表达出更高疾病易感性水平的参与者，这种效应更强，但并不取决于对新冠威胁的认知。研究结果再次证实了先前的证据，表明厌恶在疾病规避机制中起关键作用。它们还通过证明疾病易感性在塑造同性恋消极态度方面的调节作用，指出了行为免疫系统的功能灵活性。最后，研究结果表明新冠威胁并未强化厌恶与同性恋消极态度之间的关系。
