Negative attitudes and stigmatization can originate from the perception of a disease-related threat. Following the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is often suggested that incidents of discriminatory behavior are the result of defense mechanisms aimed at avoiding pathogens. According to the behavioral immune system theory, people are motivated to distance themselves from individuals who show signs of infection, or who are only heuristically associated with a disease, primarily because of the disgust they evoke. In this paper we focus on negative attitudes towards gay men and lesbians who are among social groups that have been persistently framed as “unclean”. In our correlational study (N = 500 heterosexual participants; Polish sample data collected during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Poland, in March/April 2020) we tested moderation models derived from the behavioral immune system theory. Specifically, we investigated whether perceived vulnerability to disease and perceived threat of contracting COVID-19 moderate the relation between disgust and homonegativity. We found that sexual disgust (but not pathogen nor moral disgust) predicted homonegative attitudes. This effect was stronger for participants expressing higher levels of perceived vulnerability to disease but was not dependent on the perception of the COVID-19 threat. The results reaffirm previous evidence indicating a pivotal role of disgust in disease-avoidance mechanisms. They also point to functional flexibility of the behavioral immune system by demonstrating the moderating role of perceived vulnerability to disease in shaping homonegative attitudes. Finally, they show that the threat of COVID-19 does not strengthen the relationship between disgust and homonegativity.

中文翻译：

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在COVID-19大流行的背景下测试基于厌恶的谐和态度的机制

负面态度和污名化可能源于对疾病相关威胁的感知。随着COVID-19大流行的蔓延，通常有人提出歧视性行为是旨在避免病原体的防御机制的结果。根据行为免疫系统理论，人们被激励与表现出感染迹象或仅凭启发式与某种疾病相关的人保持距离，这主要是由于他们引起的厌恶。在本文中，我们重点关注对同性恋者和同性恋者的消极态度，这些同性恋者一直被视为“不洁”。在我们的相关研究中（N = 500个异性恋参与者；在波兰首次COVID-19锁定期间收集的波兰样本数据，在2020年3月/ 2020年4月），我们测试了源自行为免疫系统理论的调节模型。具体而言，我们调查了对疾病的感知脆弱性和对感染COVID-19的感知威胁是否减轻了厌恶与同性负相关性。我们发现性厌恶（而不是病原体或道德厌恶）预示着同性恋的态度。对于表达较高水平的疾病易感性但不依赖于对COVID-19威胁的感知的参与者，此影响更强。结果重申了先前的证据，表明厌恶在避免疾病的机制中起着关键作用。他们还通过证明感知的疾病易感性在塑造同性恋消极态度中的调节作用，指出了行为免疫系统的功能灵活性。最后，