Ostensibly serving to restrict contact with disease vectors, humans exhibit aversion toward cues heuristically inferred as pathogenic. This restriction could lead perceivers to downregulate their interest in food consumption, even if such cues may not connote actual disease threats. This proclivity to avoid disease led us to consider how heuristic disease cues inform interest in foods. Participants evaluated a hypothetical food preparer that varied in the presence of heuristic cues to disease transmission (i.e., physical deformities versus healthy control). Individuals with low levels of perceived infectability were more discerning of the social target as a function of disease cues, whereas heightened levels of this trait fostered an overall aversion to targets regardless of health status. Results provide continued evidence for how pathogen avoidance motives compete with other somatic motives.

表面上是为了限制与疾病媒介的接触，人类对启发式推断为致病的线索表现出厌恶。这种限制可能会导致感知者下调他们对食物消费的兴趣，即使这些线索可能并不意味着实际的疾病威胁。这种避免疾病的倾向促使我们考虑启发式疾病线索如何激发人们对食物的兴趣。参与者评估了一个假设的食品制备者，该食品制备者在疾病传播的启发式线索（即身体畸形与健康对照）的存在下发生变化。感知传染性水平较低的个体对作为疾病线索功能的社会目标的识别能力更强，而这种特征水平的提高会导致对目标的整体厌恶，无论健康状况如何。结果为病原体回避动机如何与其他躯体动机竞争提供了持续的证据。