The Influence of Disease Vulnerability on Decision Making

对疾病的易感性会影响人们的决策吗？人们对疾病对工人缺勤和残疾的影响了解很多，但对疾病易感性对决策的影响知之甚少，而决策对生活质量和国家经济增长起着关键作用。本研究通过一系列研究探讨了由于免疫功能或环境背景导致的疾病易感性与决策之间的联系。本研究基于心理神经免疫学、实验社会心理学和进化生物学等多个领域的理论和方法的新颖整合。很容易想象，鉴于疾病的脆弱性，人们会做出自我保护的决定和行为。然而，通过结合这些理论，科学家们得出了一个创新的、违反直觉的预测。也就是说，不是让我们做出安全的决定，而是对环境和免疫来源的疾病的脆弱性实际上可能导致冒险的决定。这项研究的结果可以用来促进我们公民的身体健康，有利于他们的福祉和我们国家的经济。这项拟议中的研究将检验一个假设，即对病原体和疾病的更大脆弱性会增加风险决策。这项研究测试了在生物来源的、基于免疫的脆弱性或外部病原体负荷感知变化的背景下的决策。为了测试脆弱性和冒险决策之间的联系，德克萨斯基督教大学的莎拉·希尔博士和她的同事们提出了一项多学科的相关研究，测量外周血免疫功能和决策之间的多个方面的关系。这项首次的同类研究将为免疫功能的关键指标是否能预测冒险行为及其态度和认知前因提供重要的新见解。接下来，研究人员提出了七个实验室实验，在这些实验中，他们使用一个既定的启动程序来实验诱导对疾病的感知脆弱性，并测量随后的心理和行为变化，这些变化已知会促进风险决策。拟议的研究有望为许多领域提供重要的新理论进展，包括社会、健康、进化、临床和人格心理学、决策科学和精神神经免疫学。这项研究将对促进各种风险决策的因素产生重要的新见解，这些风险决策导致最容易受到这些行为不良影响的人做出冒险行为。

Does vulnerability to disease influence the decisions that people make? Much is known about the effects of illness on worker absenteeism and disability, but little is known about the effects of disease vulnerability on decision making, which can play a key role in quality of life and the nation's economic growth. This research examines the link between disease vulnerability due to immunological functioning or the environmental context and decision making with a series of studies. This research is based in a novel integration of theory and methods from several fields including psychoneuroimmunology, experimental social psychology, and evolutionary biology. It is easy to imagine that given a disease vulnerability one would engage in self-protective decisions and behaviors. However, by combining these theories the scientists arrive at an innovative and counterintuitive prediction. That is, instead of moving us toward safe decisions, vulnerability to disease that stems from environmental and immunological sources may actually lead to risky decisions. The findings of this research could be used to promote the physical health of our citizens, benefiting their well-being and our nation's economy. The proposed research will test the hypothesis that greater vulnerability to pathogens and disease increase risky decision making. The research tests decision making in the context of biologically derived, immune-based vulnerabilities or perceived changes in the external pathogen load. To test the link between vulnerability and risky decisions, Dr. Sarah Hill, from Texas Christian University, and her colleagues, propose a multi-disciplinary correlational study that measures the relationship between multiple facets of peripheral blood-based immune function and decision-making. This first-of-its kind study will provide important new insights into whether key measures of immunological function predict risk-taking and its attitudinal and cognitive antecedents. Next, the researchers propose seven laboratory experiments in which they use an established priming procedure to experimentally induce perceived vulnerability to disease, and measure subsequent psychological and behavioral changes known to promote risky decision-making. The proposed research promises to offer important new theoretical advances to numerous fields including social, health, evolutionary, clinical, and personality psychology, decision making science, and psychoneuroimmunology. This research will yield important new insights into factors that promote a variety of risky decisions that lead to risk-taking behaviors among those people who are most vulnerable to the ill effects of these behaviors.