SBP: Evaluating the Causal Role of Inflammation in Social Prejudice

SBP：评估炎症在社会偏见中的因果作用

• 批准号: 2017191
• 负责人: Anastasia Makhanova
• 金额: $ 16.84万
• 依托单位: University of Arkansas
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-08-15 至 2022-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2017191&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBP; Evaluating; Causal; Role; Inflammation

It can be difficult for people to interact with others who they perceive to be different than themselves. New theoretical models suggest that although people possess adaptive behavioral strategies to help them avoid contagion from potential sources of pathogens, these strategies can manifest in negative social processes such as prejudice. This research tests the hypothesis that one factor that can activate those disease avoidance strategies and lead people to be more biased is immune system activation. People’s immune systems are activated by recurring experiences like fighting off an illness or dealing with a stressor. This research experimentally induces acute inflammation to test if immune system activity leads to prejudicial responses. It is expected that people in the experimental group, for whom the immune system was activated, will produce more bias against others than people in the control group. More broadly, understanding the factors that can increase conflict between people from different backgrounds and perspectives is necessary to facilitate fair evaluations of others in society. This research adopts an inter-disciplinary approach combining social psychology with psychoneuroimmunology to examine whether people’s immune systems affect the way they view and react to others around them, especially others they perceive as different. This research examines the causal link between inflammation and prejudice by experimentally manipulating acute inflammation via the use of vaccines. Vaccines result in higher immune system activity on the next day. The research tests the hypothesis that inflammation results in more social biases against various groups (immigrants, elderly, people with obesity, people with a disability). The research also tests the hypothesis that people’s beliefs that they are protected from the threat of germs can mentally block the impulsive bias that may result from the immune system activation. This project will thus identify a biological process that can lead to prejudice and discrimination.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

人们可能很难与他们认为与自己不同的人互动。新的理论模型表明，尽管人们拥有适应性行为策略来帮助他们避免潜在病原体来源的传染，但这些策略可能会表现为负面的社会过程，例如。这项研究检验了这样一种假设，即可以激活这些疾病避免策略并导致人们更加有偏见的因素是免疫系统的激活，例如抵抗疾病或应对压力源等。研究通过实验诱导急性炎症来测试如果免疫系统活动导致偏见反应，预计免疫系统被激活的实验组中的人会比对照组中的人产生更多的偏见。为了促进对社会上其他人的公平评价，有必要对来自不同背景和观点的人进行评估。这项研究采用了社会心理学与心理神经免疫学相结合的跨学科方法来研究人们的免疫系统是否影响他们对周围他人的看法和反应，尤其是。他们认为其他人不同。这项研究通过使用疫苗实验性地操纵急性炎症来检验炎症和偏见之间的因果关系，该研究检验了炎症导致针对不同群体（移民）的更多社会偏见的假设。该研究还测试了这样一个假设：人们相信自己免受细菌威胁，可以在精神上阻止免疫系统激活可能导致的冲动偏见。识别生物过程这可能会导致偏见和歧视。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并且通过使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。