Tilburg University, The Netherlands.
Aarhus University, Denmark.
Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2024 Jul;50(7):1051-1065. doi: 10.1177/01461672231160655. Epub 2023 Mar 21.
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 ( = 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.
通过遵守群体规范，个体与其他群体成员协调一致，保持凝聚力，并避免被排斥的代价。先前的实验表明，对传染病的担忧增加会导致从众行为增加。然而，与其他群体成员的协调有多种好处，其中大多数与致病性感染无关。因此，病原体回避动机对从众行为的强烈因果影响似乎不太可能。五项实验的结果（n=1931）仅有限地支持了这样一种假设，即实验性地增加对病原体回避的动机会影响从众行为。总的来说，我们的发现与这样一种观点不一致，即人类的思维中包含一种快速作用的心理机制，根据短期的病原体回避动机来调节从众行为。
