Identifying cues to contagious disease is critical for effectively tracking and defending against interpersonal infection threats. People hold lay beliefs about the types of sensory information most relevant for identifying whether others are sick with transmissible illnesses. Are these beliefs universal, or do they vary along cultural and ecological dimensions? Participants in 58 countries (N = 19,217) judged how effective, and how likely they were to use, cues involving each of the five major sensory modalities in an imagined social interaction during a flu outbreak. Belief patterns were strongly consistent across countries (sight > audition > touch > smell > taste), suggesting a largely universal conceptualization of the role of sensory information for interpersonal respiratory disease detection. Results also support a safe senses hypothesis, with perceivers reporting that they would use senses that function at a distance-and thus reduce pathogen transmission risk-more than would be expected given participants' beliefs as to the efficacy of these senses for disease detection. Where societal variation did emerge, it was captured by a cohesive set of socio-ecological factors, including human development, latitude, pathogen prevalence, and population density. Together, these findings reveal a shared lens through which contagious respiratory disease is assessed, one that prioritizes minimizing risk to perceivers, and may offer leverage for designing interventions to improve public health.

Agroscope Research group Economic Modelling and Policy Analysis Ettenhausen Switzerland

Bachelor Program in Psychology Intercontinetal University Mexico City Mexico

BI Norwegian Business School Oslo Norway

Center for the Experimental Philosophical Study of Discrimination Aarhus University Aarhus Denmark

Centro de Estudios para el Arte y la Cultura de la Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas Mexico

CICPSI Faculty of Psychology University of Lisbon Lisbon Portugal

College of Music Mahidol University Salaya Thailand

Departamento de Filosofía Lógica y Filosofía de la Ciencia Universidad de Sevilla Seville Spain

Department of Anthropology and Sociology Universiti Malaya Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

Department of Anthropology University of California Los Angeles Los Angeles CA United States; Center for Behavior Evolution and Culture University of California Los Angeles Los Angeles CA United States; Bedari Kindness Institute University of California Los Angeles Los Angeles CA United States

Department of Archeology University of California Los Angeles Los Angeles CA United States

Department of Clinical Neuroscience Karolinska Institutet Stockholm Sweden

Department of Clinical Neuroscience Karolinska Institutet Stockholm Sweden; CEE M University of Montpellier CNRS INRAE Institut Agro Montpellier France

Department of Clinical Psychology National University of Medical Sciences Rawalpindi Pakistan

Department of Economics Pontifical Catholic University of Peru Lima Peru

Department of Educational Psychology and Counselling Universiti Malaya Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

Department of Educational Sciences and Social Work University of Patras Pátras Greece

Department of Environmental Ecology and Landscape Management Comenius Bratislava Slovakia

Department of Environmental Ecology and Landscape Management Comenius Bratislava Slovakia; Institute of Zoology Slovak Academy of Sciences Bratislava Slovakia

Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv Kyiv Ukraine

Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Amsterdam the Netherlands; Institute Brain and Behaviour Amsterdam Amsterdam Netherlands

Department of Experimental Psychology Institute of Psychology University of Sao Paulo Sao Paulo Brazil

Department of General Psychology University of Padova Padova Italy

Department of Health Sciences Campus Lerma Metropolitan Autonomous University Lerma Mexico

Department of Human Behavior Ecology and Culture Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Leipzig Germany

Department of Management Aarhus University Aarhus Denmark

Department of Management Ben Gurion University of the Negev Israel

Department of Management University of Agder Kristiansand Norway

Department of Marketing Coller School of Management Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv Israel

Department of Mental Health Faculty of Medicine Gulu University Gulu Uganda

Department of Philosophy and History of Science Charles University Prague Czechia

Department of Philosophy University of Granada Granada Spain

Department of Political Science Aarhus University Aarhus Denmark

Department of Political Science Trinity College Dublin Dublin Ireland

Department of Psychiatry University of Colombo Colombo Sri Lanka

Department of Psychiatry Yale School of Medicine New Haven CT United States

Department of Psychology and Psychodynamics Division Psychological Methodology Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences Krems an der Donau Austria

Department of Psychology Faculty of Behavioural Sciences HELP University Malaysia; Faculty of Psychology Chulalongkorn University 254 Phayathai Road Pathumwan Bangkok 10330 Thailand

Department of Psychology Faculty of Education and Psychology Shahid Beheshti University Tehran Iran

Department of Psychology International University of Business Agriculture and Technology Dhaka Bangladesh

Department of Psychology MEF University Istanbul Turkey

Department of Psychology Nottingham Trent University Nottingham England UK

Department of Psychology Royal Holloway University of London Egham England UK; School of Psychology University of Kent Canterbury UK

Department of Psychology Universidad del Valle Guatemala Guatemala City Guatemala

Department of Psychology Universidad Francisco Marroquin Guatemala City Guatemala

Department of Psychology Universitas Airlangga East Java Indonesia

Department of Psychology Universitatea Lucian Blaga din Sibiu Sibiu Romania

Department of Psychology University of Belgrade Belgrade Serbia

Department of Psychology University of California San Diego San Diego CA United States

Department of Psychology University of Colorado Colorado Springs Colorado Springs CO United States; Department of Biology University of Colorado Colorado Springs Colorado Springs CO United States

Department of Psychology University of Guelph Guelph Ontario Canada

Department of Psychology University of Michigan Ann Arbor MI United States

Department of Psychology University of Nigeria Enugu Nigeria

Department of Psychology University of Oslo Oslo Norway

Department of Psychology University of Wisconsin Madison Madison WI United States

Department of Psychology University of Zagreb Zagreb Croatia

Department of Psychology Yonsei University Seoul South Korea

Department of Research on Smoking and COPD Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Respiratorias Ismael Cosio Villegas Mexico City Mexico; Doctorate of Biological and Health Sciences Metropolitan Autonomous University Lerma Mexico

Department of Social and Cultural Psychology HUN REN Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology Budapest Hungary; Institute of Psychology Károli Gáspár University of Reformed Church Budapest Hungary

Department of Social and Work Psychology University of Brasília Brasília Brazil

Department of Social Research Faculty of Social Sciences University of Turku Finland

Department of Sociology Vytautas Magnus University Kaunas Lithuania; PB Kaunas County Public Library Lithuania

Department of Zoology Charles University Prague Czechia

Escuela de Psicología Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana Santiago Chile

Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores unidad Morelia Universidad Nacional Autonama de México Mexico

Faculty of Economics Shiga University Hikone Japan

Faculty of Medicine University of Lisbon Lisbon Portugal; Hospital Júlio de Matos Lisboa Portugal

Faculty of Political Sciences University of Belgrade Belgrade Serbia

Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University Tbilisi Georgia

Faculty of Psychology Universidad El Bosque Bogotá Colombia

Faculty of Psychology University of Iceland Reykjavík Iceland

Faculty of Science and Engineering Maastricht University Maastricht the Netherlands

Feinberg School of Medicine Northwestern University Chicago IL United States

Graduate Program in Psychology Universidade Federal do Rio Grande Do Sul Porto Alegre RS Brazil

Institute for the Future of Human Society Kyoto University Japan

Institute of Humanities and Societal Sciences Daugavpils University Daugavpils Latvia

Institute of Psychology Nicolaus Copernicus University Toruń Poland

Institute of Psychology University of Gdansk Gdański Poland

Institute of Psychology University of Tartu Tartu Estonia

Laboratory of Evolution and Interpersonal Relationships LERI Universidad de Santiago de Chile Santiago Chile

Louvain School of Management Université Catholique de Louvain Ottignies Louvain la Neuve Belgium

Ministry of Defence Singapore

Proyecto Aigle Guatemala Guatemala City Guatemala

Psychology Department Durham University Durham United Kingdom

Psychology Program Department of Social Sciences College of Arts and Sciences Qatar University 2713 Doha Qatar

Religion Programme University of Otago Dunedin New Zealand

School of General Studies State University of Medical and Applied Sciences Igbo Eno Enugu State Nigeria

School of Humanities and Social Science The Chinese University of Hong Kong Shenzhen Shenzhen China

School of Psychology King Saud University Riyadh Saudi Arabia

School of Psychology University of Queensland Brisbane Queensland Australia

School of Social Sciences Singapore Management University Singapore

Sustainability and Education Policy Network Saskatoon SK Canada

Universidad de Cuenca Cuenca Ecuador

University of Social Sciences and Humanities Vietnam National University Hanoi Viet Nam

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