COVID-19 and Memory: A Novel Contamination Effect in Memory
Gaëtan Thiebaut, Alain Méot, Arnaud Witt, Pavol Prokop, Patrick Bonin
Abstract
The Behavioral Immune System (BIS, Schaller & Park, 2011) is a defense system whose function is to protect against pathogen exposure. Memory is an important component of this system (Fernandes et al., 2017). We investigated “contamination effects” in memory in relation to COVID-19. Photographs of everyday objects were shown to adults ( N = 80) in the hands of either a healthy or a contagious person who had contracted SARS-CoV-2. “Contaminated objects” were recalled better than “non-contaminated objects” suggesting that a contamination effect in memory in humans is easily acquired in the absence of apparent visual cues of disease.
Topics & Concepts
ContaminationPsychologyCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)Human memoryFunction (biology)Cognitive psychologyCognitionCommunicationDiseaseNeuroscienceBiologyEcologyMedicineInfectious disease (medical specialty)Evolutionary biologyPathologyPsychology of Moral and Emotional JudgmentMisinformation and Its ImpactsVaccine Coverage and Hesitancy