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Changes in perceived vulnerability to disease, resilience, and disgust sensitivity during the pandemic: A longitudinal study

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Abstract

In this study, we examine how perceived vulnerability to disease, psychological resilience, and disgust sensitivity are affected by changing social conditions during the pandemic. We collected data from 314 participants at four different time points, reflecting varying government restrictions and actual morbidity/fatality rates. We found that disgust sensitivity and psychological resilience remained robust to changing social conditions. However, perceived vulnerability to disease fluctuated over time. People reported feeling more vulnerable when external conditions were inconsistent, such as high case numbers with low government restrictions or vice versa. Pathogen disgust sensitivity emerged as the primary predictor of perceived vulnerability to disease dimensions: Perceived Infectability and Germ Aversion. Psychological resilience showed only a weak relationship with Germ Aversion. In conclusion, the traits that influence how we cope in threatening environment, namely disgust sensitivity and psychological resilience, remain unaffected by the social conditions during the pandemic. Perceived vulnerability to disease, on the other hand, is more sensitive to environmental changes and can be partially predicted by disgust sensitivity and psychological resilience. Notably, although both disgust sensitivity and perceived vulnerability to disease are parts of the behavioural immune system, they differ in their response to environmental factors. Disgust sensitivity remains stable over time, regardless of the government restrictions or pandemic cases, whereas perceived vulnerability to disease is influenced by the external factors.

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Data Availability

Data sharing statement: Data is available at https://osf.io/cjhrm/?view_only=786ac0a60591428d93b314994e6ecb51.

Notes

  1. Due to data availability issues and the ongoing nature of our project, we prioritized maximizing participant recruitment over determining a fixed sample size through a priori power analysis. The details of that power analysis can be found in the OSF.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education, with public funds allocated on science (2019–2023), in the form of Diamentowy Grant (DI2018 024848) granted to MMS. We would like to thank Supratik Mondal for his help with the statistical analyses.

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  1. Institute of Psychology, Wroclaw University, ul. Dawida 1, Wroclaw, 50-529, Poland

    Michal M. Stefanczyk, Marta Rokosz & Michał Białek

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  1. Michal M. Stefanczyk
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Correspondence to Michal M. Stefanczyk.

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Stefanczyk, M.M., Rokosz, M. & Białek, M. Changes in perceived vulnerability to disease, resilience, and disgust sensitivity during the pandemic: A longitudinal study. Curr Psychol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-05825-9

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