Document 1188
 DOCN  M9591188
 TI    Magical thinking about illness virulence: conceptions of germs from safe
       versus dangerous others.
 DT    9509
 AU    Nemeroff CJ; Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe;
       85287-1104, USA.
 SO    Health Psychol. 1995 Mar;14(2):147-51. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE
       MED/95309221
 AB    AIDS-related research has documented overreactions to casual contact and
       underreactions to sexual risk. This contradiction is explained by
       magical contagion, a principle of thinking common in traditional
       societies, wherein contagion is considered socially discriminating, such
       that harmfulness depends on the nature of the relationship between
       source and recipient. In Study 1, 100 undergraduate participants drew
       germs described as their own, a stranger's, their lover's, or a disliked
       peer's. Lovers' germs were depicted as less threatening than disliked
       peers' germs. In Study 2, scenarios described contact with a
       flu-infected lover, stranger, or disliked peer. New undergraduate
       participants (N = 133) rated how likely they were to become ill and how
       severely. Although likelihood ratings did not differ, severity ratings
       followed a linear trend, effects of lover contact being least severe and
       contact with disliked peer most severe. Behavioral implications of the
       blurring of feelings about germ source with estimates of germ virulence
       are discussed.
 DE    Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome/PREVENTION & CONTROL/
       *PSYCHOLOGY/TRANSMISSION  *Defense Mechanisms  Female  Human
       HIV/PATHOGENICITY  Imagination  Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice  *Magic
       Male  *Risk-Taking  Sexual Partners/*PSYCHOLOGY  *Sick Role  Support,
       Non-U.S. Gov't  Virulence  JOURNAL ARTICLE

       SOURCE: National Library of Medicine.  NOTICE: This material may be
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