**HBES 2018**
**Abstract (Talk)**
How can people tell whether someone has an infectious illness? Behavioral Immune System research suggests people rely on physically anomalous cues perceivable in others (e.g., facial disfigurement, obesity) to assess pathogenic infection risk from interpersonal contact. Such cues are thought to superficially resemble true markers of infectious disease. But do perceivers equally associate features such as disfigurement and obesity with infection? In Study 1 (N = 268), participants completed an Implicit Association Test (IAT) in which they categorized words as either Harmless (e.g., typewriter) or Infectious (e.g., bacteria) and faces as either (a) Average or Obese, or (b) Average or Disfigured. In both conditions, participants showed automatic associations between Infectious concepts and superficial cues; however, participants showed stronger associations between Infectious concepts and Disfigured faces compared to Obese faces. In Study 2 (N = 221), participants completed the same IAT except they categorized faces as either Obese or Disfigured. As in Study 1, participants showed stronger associations between Infectious concepts and Disfigured faces compared to Obese faces. Unlike in Study 1, participants showed weaker associations between Obese faces and Infectious concepts compared to Harmless concepts. Obesity can be associated with infection, but this association may be disrupted in the presence of a more representative infectious disease cue such as facial disfigurement.
**SPSP 2018**
**Abstract (Poster)**
How can people tell whether someone has an infectious illness? Research on the Behavioral Immune System suggests people rely on physically anomalous cues perceivable in others (e.g., facial disfigurement, obesity) to assess their risk of pathogenic infection from interpersonal contact. Such cues are thought to superficially resemble true signs of infectious disease. But do perceivers equally associate features such as disfigurement and obesity with infection? In Study 1 (N = 268), participants completed an Implicit Association Test (IAT) in which they categorized words as either Harmless (e.g., typewriter) or Infectious (e.g., bacteria) and faces as either (a) Average or Obese, or (b) Average or Disfigured. In both conditions, participants showed automatic associations between Infectious concepts and superficial cues; however, participants showed stronger associations between Infectious concepts and Disfigured faces compared to Obese faces. In Study 2 (N = 221), participants again categorized words as either Harmless or Infectious, but they also categorized faces as either Obese or Disfigured within the same IAT. As in Study 1, participants showed stronger associations between Infectious concepts and Disfigured faces compared to Obese faces; however, unlike in Study 1, participants showed stronger associations between Obese faces and Harmless concepts compared to Infectious concepts. These data suggest that although obesity can be associated with infection, this association may be disrupted in the presence of a more representative infectious disease cue such as facial disfigurement.
