論文

査読有り 筆頭著者 責任著者 国際誌
2020年

Visual Perception of Moisture Is a Pathogen Detection Mechanism of the Behavioral Immune System.

Frontiers in psychology
  • Kazunori Iwasa
  • ,
  • Takanori Komatsu
  • ,
  • Ayaka Kitamura
  • ,
  • Yuta Sakamoto

11
開始ページ
170
終了ページ
170
記述言語
英語
掲載種別
研究論文(学術雑誌)
DOI
10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00170

The behavioral immune system (BIS) includes perceptual mechanisms for detecting cues of contamination. Former studies have indicated that moisture has a disgusting property. Therefore, moisture could be a target for detecting contamination cues by the BIS. We conducted two experiments to examine the psychophysical basis of moisture perception and clarify the relationship between the perception of moisture and the BIS. We assumed that the number of high luminance areas in a visual image provided optical information that would enable the visual perception of moisture. In two experiments, we presented eight images of dough that contained different amounts of moisture as experimental stimuli. The amount of moisture shown in the images was increased in eight steps, from 28.6 to 42.9% of the total weight of the dough. In Experiment 1, the images were randomly presented on a computer display, and the participants (n = 22) were asked to rank the images in the order of the visually perceived moisture content. In Experiment 2, the participants (n = 15) completed pairwise comparisons based on the perceived moistness of the images. Furthermore, to examine the BIS responses, the participants rated the strength of disgust evoked by the stimuli, their motivation to avoid touching the stimuli, and the estimated magnitude of the risk of contamination by physical contact with the stimuli. The results indicated that the moisture content and the numbers of high luminance areas in the images accurately predicted the perception of moisture, suggesting that the detection of visual moisture was highly accurate, and the optical information served as an essential perceptual cue for detecting moisture. On the other hand, the BIS responses peaked in response to stimuli having approximately 33 to 39% moisture content. These results show that objects containing a moderate amount of moisture could be the target of visually detecting pathogens by the BIS.

リンク情報
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00170
PubMed
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32116962
PubMed Central
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7031479
共同研究・競争的資金等の研究課題
行動免疫の心理学的基盤とその機能に関する研究
共同研究・競争的資金等の研究課題
嫌悪とヘイトスピーチ:排斥行動の内的過程解明とその予防に資する基礎的研究
URL
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00170/full 本文へのリンクあり
ID情報
  • DOI : 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00170
  • PubMed ID : 32116962
  • PubMed Central 記事ID : PMC7031479

エクスポート
BibTeX RIS