The Behavioral Immune System, Acculturation, and Learned Behavior of Children

This excerpt emphasizes that pathogen-salience can lead to people acting less extroverted and more socially avoidant. This supports my prediction that with COVID-19 so pervasive, and our behavioral immune system activated, there will be a shift in the sociality of our culture to more introverted and socially avoidant. 

This graph gives a visual of the important role age plays when individuals are immersed in a new culture. As you can see, acculturation increased for Hong Kong immigrants with the years they spent in Canada if they fell into the 0-15 years age group. For the other age groups, the more time spent in Canada, the more their identification with Canada decreased. This information speaks to why I think we will really see the cultural shift in the U.S when the children of today become adults. Children 0-15 years are more likely to become accustomed to the norms that we have been creating in response to the pandemic and continue to follow them as they age. 

This video provides insight into how children are being taught about social distancing. Children are learning that to keep themselves and others safe, they need to stay six feet apart. Learning this at such a young and impressionable age can make it easier for children to practice social distancing, and likely that they hold onto it as a norm even when the threat of COVID-19 becomes less salient. (Click on What is Social Distancing to view the video)

This video is evidence that there is a focus on germ aversion being taught to children, supporting my prediction of our culture becoming less extroverted when connected to Schaller and Parks's 2011 study, The Behavioral Immune System (and Why It Matters). This study states that higher levels of germ aversion correlate with lower levels of extraversion. (Click on Stop Germs From Spreading to view the video)

This excerpt provides evidence for the role germ aversion plays in the response to the pandemic. As seen with Stop Germs From Spreading, there is a focus on teaching children to avoid germs. It is expected that this leads to germ aversion in more children and therefore, less extraversion.