Disease Avoidance Motives Trade-Off Against Social Motives, Especially Mate-Seeking, to Predict Social Distancing: Evidence From the COVID-19 Pandemic

Disease Avoidance Motives Trade-Off Against Social Motives, Especially Mate-Seeking, to Predict Social Distancing: Evidence From the COVID-19 Pandemic

A range of studies have sought to understand why people’s compliance with social distancing varied during the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent theory suggests that pathogen avoidance behavior is based not only on perceived risk but on a trade-off between the perceived costs of pathogen exposure and the per...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social psychological & personality science Vol. 13; no. 8; pp. 1281 - 1293
Main Authors: Gul, Pelin, Keesmekers, Nils, Elmas, Pinar, Köse, Fatma Ebru, Koskun, Tolga, Wisman, Arnaud, Kupfer, Tom R.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01-11-2022
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects:
Avoidance behavior
Compliance
COVID-19
Mating
Pandemics
Risk perception
Romantic relationships
Young men
COVID-19
disease avoidance
infectious disease prevention
mate-seeking
social distancing
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Summary:A range of studies have sought to understand why people’s compliance with social distancing varied during the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent theory suggests that pathogen avoidance behavior is based not only on perceived risk but on a trade-off between the perceived costs of pathogen exposure and the perceived benefits of social contact. We hypothesized that compliance with social distancing may therefore be explained by a trade-off between pathogen avoidance and various social motives such as mate-seeking. Two studies conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic showed that social distancing was positively associated with disease avoidance motives but negatively associated with social motives, especially mating motives. These associations remained after controlling for predictors identified by previous research, including risk perception and personality. Findings indicate that people who are more interested in seeking new romantic partners (e.g., young men) may be less inclined to socially distance and be more at risk of pathogen transmission.
ISSN:1948-5506
1948-5514
DOI:10.1177/19485506211046462