Peer-reviewedCC BYProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Interpersonal value regulates infection-risky social contact across 61 societies.
40 affiliations
- 1Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1081 BT, The Netherlands.
- 2Institute for Brain and Behavior, Amsterdam 1081 BT, The Netherlands.
- 3Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Social Psychology, Tilburg University, Tilburg 5037 AB, The Netherlands.
- 4Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109.
- 5Department of Psychology, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, CO 80918.
- 6Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, Toulouse School of Economics, University of Toulouse Capitole, Toulouse 31080 Cedex 6, France.
- 7Institute for Evolutionary Sciences, Université de Montpellier, CNRS, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, École Pratique des Hautes Études, Montpellier 34095 Cedex 5, France.
- 8School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6PE, United Kingdom.
- 9Psychology Department, University of Ghana, Legon LG 25, Ghana.
- 10Department of International Business, Norges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige Universitet, Ålesund 7491, Norway.
- 11Psychology, Department of Humanities, Åbo Akademi University, Turku 20500, Finland.
- 12Department of Anthropology, İstanbul University, Istanbul 34452, Türkiye.
- 13State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Science and Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
- 14Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
- 15Laboratorio de Evolucion y Relaciones Interpersonales, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Santiago 9170022, Chile.
- 16Escuela de Medicina y Ciencias de La Salud, Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá 111711, Colombia.
- 17Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada.
- 18Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287.
- 19Social and Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Mackenzie Presbyterian University, São Paulo 01302-907, Brazil.
- 20National Institute of Science and Technology on Social and Affective Neuroscience, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, São Paulo 01302-907, Brazil.
- 21Department of Occupational, Economic and Social Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna 1010, Austria.
- 22Department of Banking and Finance, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck 6020, Austria.
- 23The Faculty of Psychology, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand.
- 24Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education and Applied Psychology, University of Padua, Padua 35131, Italy.
- 25Department of Anthropology, Hatay Mustafa Kemal University, Hatay 31060, Turkey.
- 26School of Psychological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia.
- 27Department of Psychology, James Cook University, Singapore 387380, Singapore.
- 28Center for Social and Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Viña del Mar 2520000, Chile.
- 29Center of Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies, Santiago 7500011, Chile.
- 30School of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom.
- 31Institut Jean Nicod, Département d'études Cognitives, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, CNRS, Paris 75005, France.
- 32Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A1, Canada.
- 33School of Psychology, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA 6150, Australia.
- 34Anthropology Department, Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Quito 170901, Ecuador.
- 35Department of Philosophy and History of Science, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague 128 00, Czech Republic.
- 36Department of Management, Aarhus University, Aarhus 8210, Denmark.
- 37Department of Psychology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118.
- 38Psychology Department, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, São Cristóvão 49100-000, Brazil.
- 39Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095.
- 40University of California, Los Angeles Center for Behavior, Evolution and Culture, Los Angeles, CA 90095.
Abstract
Interpersonal contact is essential for cooperation and care, but it also provides a route for pathogen transmission between individuals. Hence, a key challenge for social organisms involves maintaining beneficial social contact while also limiting exposure to infection risks. Existing proposals suggest that this trade-off is guided by the interpersonal value of specific social targets. In addition, ecological and cultural factors, including historical pathogen prevalence, individualism-collectivism, tightness-looseness, and relational mobility, might also shape how people avoid pathogens. To test whether and how infection-risky social contact varies with individual-level interpersonal value and these societal-level factors, we collected data from 47,756 participants across 61 societies. Participants were randomly assigned to picture a social target - either a friend, acquaintance, stranger, or enemy. They then rated their comfort with infection-risky contact with that target (e.g., drinking from the same water bottle) and whether they would touch the target when greeting them. In all societies, participants were more comfortable with infection-risky contact and more likely to engage in physical contact during greetings with targets of higher interpersonal value. Such associations varied only modestly across societies. Notably, the associations between infection-risky contact and societal-level factors depended on target interpersonal value and were concentrated among high-value targets-contact was lower where historical pathogen prevalence and tightness were greater and higher where individualism and relational mobility were greater. These findings suggest that infection-risky contact is primarily guided by the value of social targets, with ecological and cultural factors playing a lesser role.
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BibTeX
@article{sun2026interpersonal,
title = {{Interpersonal value regulates infection-risky social contact across 61 societies.}},
author = {Hongyu Sun and Giuliana Spadaro and Sofia Pelica and Roza G Kamiloğlu and Loes Abrahams and Joshua M Ackerman and Savannah Adams and Laith Al-Shawaf and Alexandra Alvergne and Benjamin Amponsah and Njål Andersen and Jan Antfolk and Derya Atamtürk Duyar and Songshi Bai and María Teresa Barbato and Sergio Barbosa and Pat Barclay and D Vaughn Becker and Beatriz B de Souza and Paulo Sérgio Boggio and Robert Böhm and Watcharaporn Boonyasiriwat and Andrea S Camperio Ciani and Ali Rıza Can and Trevor I Case and Kai Qin Chan and Luis Sebastian Contreras-Huerta and Paul Conway and Coralie Chevallier and Éloïse Côté and Sam P Dale and Florencio Delgado Espinoza and Daniela Dlouhá and Izzet Duyar and Christian T Elbæk and Qiran Fan and Ana María Fernández and Diogo C S Ferreira and Daniel M T Fessler and Pablo Ezequiel Flores-Kanter and Natalia Frankowska and Ana Luísa Freitas and Márta Fülöp and Marcello Gallucci and Zachary H Garfield and Margarida V Garrido and Ekmel Gecer and Macarena González-Portilla and Dmitry Grigoryev and Minh-Tri Ha and Brahim Hamdaoui and Sahar Nadeem Hamid and Lina S Hansson and Jan Havlíček and Benjamin E Hilbig and Ian Hohm and Szilárd Holka and Minsung Hong and Yutaka Horita and Hsin-Ping Hsu},
journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1073/pnas.2615739123},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42879482},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Interpersonal value regulates infection-risky social contact across 61 societies.
AU - Hongyu Sun
AU - Giuliana Spadaro
AU - Sofia Pelica
AU - Roza G Kamiloğlu
AU - Loes Abrahams
AU - Joshua M Ackerman
AU - Savannah Adams
AU - Laith Al-Shawaf
AU - Alexandra Alvergne
AU - Benjamin Amponsah
AU - Njål Andersen
AU - Jan Antfolk
AU - Derya Atamtürk Duyar
AU - Songshi Bai
AU - María Teresa Barbato
AU - Sergio Barbosa
AU - Pat Barclay
AU - D Vaughn Becker
AU - Beatriz B de Souza
AU - Paulo Sérgio Boggio
AU - Robert Böhm
AU - Watcharaporn Boonyasiriwat
AU - Andrea S Camperio Ciani
AU - Ali Rıza Can
AU - Trevor I Case
AU - Kai Qin Chan
AU - Luis Sebastian Contreras-Huerta
AU - Paul Conway
AU - Coralie Chevallier
AU - Éloïse Côté
AU - Sam P Dale
AU - Florencio Delgado Espinoza
AU - Daniela Dlouhá
AU - Izzet Duyar
AU - Christian T Elbæk
AU - Qiran Fan
AU - Ana María Fernández
AU - Diogo C S Ferreira
AU - Daniel M T Fessler
AU - Pablo Ezequiel Flores-Kanter
AU - Natalia Frankowska
AU - Ana Luísa Freitas
AU - Márta Fülöp
AU - Marcello Gallucci
AU - Zachary H Garfield
AU - Margarida V Garrido
AU - Ekmel Gecer
AU - Macarena González-Portilla
AU - Dmitry Grigoryev
AU - Minh-Tri Ha
AU - Brahim Hamdaoui
AU - Sahar Nadeem Hamid
AU - Lina S Hansson
AU - Jan Havlíček
AU - Benjamin E Hilbig
AU - Ian Hohm
AU - Szilárd Holka
AU - Minsung Hong
AU - Yutaka Horita
AU - Hsin-Ping Hsu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/15
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
DO - 10.1073/pnas.2615739123
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42879482
AB - Interpersonal contact is essential for cooperation and care, but it also provides a route for pathogen transmission between individuals. Hence, a key challenge for social organisms involves maintaining beneficial social contact while also limiting exposure to infection risks. Existing proposals suggest that this trade-off is guided by the interpersonal value of specific social targets. In addition, ecological and cultural factors, including historical pathogen prevalence, individualism-collectivism, tightness-looseness, and relational mobility, might also shape how people avoid pathogens. To test whether and how infection-risky social contact varies with individual-level interpersonal value and these societal-level factors, we collected data from 47,756 participants across 61 societies. Participants were randomly assigned to picture a social target - either a friend, acquaintance, stranger, or enemy. They then rated their comfort with infection-risky contact with that target (e.g., drinking from the same water bottle) and whether they would touch the target when greeting them. In all societies, participants were more comfortable with infection-risky contact and more likely to engage in physical contact during greetings with targets of higher interpersonal value. Such associations varied only modestly across societies. Notably, the associations between infection-risky contact and societal-level factors depended on target interpersonal value and were concentrated among high-value targets-contact was lower where historical pathogen prevalence and tightness were greater and higher where individualism and relational mobility were greater. These findings suggest that infection-risky contact is primarily guided by the value of social targets, with ecological and cultural factors playing a lesser role.
SN - 0027-8424
SN - 1091-6490
ER -