Nonstopdrivel
15 years ago

Photos of Sick People Boost Your Immunity 

The Psychological Immune System: Why seeing me sneeze makes you healthier

By Douglas Kenrick / Source: Psychology Today

Is it good for your health to see me coughing, sneezing and blowing my runny nose? Believe it or not, recent research suggests that the answer might be: Yes.

Of course, it's not good for your health if I sneeze right into your face. You're better off not being exposed to all those disease-causing microbes in the first place. But if you are exposed to those microbes, your immune system is going to have to fight them off; and it may fight them off more aggressively if you've just been looking at people who look diseased. That's the implication of some new results published by scientists at the University of British Columbia.

The researchers asked young adults to watch a 10-minute slide show containing a series of unpleasant photographs. Some of these participants looked at pictures of people who looked obviously sick in some way (people with pox and rashes, people coughing and sneezing and blowing mucus out of their noses).

The participants gave blood samples both before and after each slideshow. Next the researchers exposed these blood samples to a bacterial infection, and measured the extent to which white blood cells produced interleukin-6 (IL-6). IL-6 is a proinflammatory cytokine that white blood cells make when they detect microbial intruders. More IL-6 indicates a more aggressive immune response to infection. So, by measuring IL-6 before and after the slide show, the researchers were able to determine whether seeing pictures of disease-y people actually stimulated the immune system to fight infection more aggressively. And it did.

So it appears that merely looking at people who look sick does help your immune system prevent you from getting sick yourself.

One of the authors on the article is the social psychologist Mark Schaller. I tracked him down in the south of France, where he's spending a sabbatical. He was willing to put aside his rigorous workload of red wine and raw sheeps-milk cheeses to answer a few questions about the research:

Doug Kenrick (DTK): I know there's lots of research showing that any kind of stressful event - even something like struggling with a difficult math problem - can trigger the immune system to work harder. How is your result different from that? What does it tell us that we didn't already know?

Mark Schaller (MS): Not all stressful events are equal in their immunological consequences. That's the neat thing that shows up in our results. We didn't just ask people to look at disease-y photos. We also had a control condition in which participants looked at photos of people who were brandishing guns (most of which were pointed right at the camera, which means they were aimed right at participants themselves). Our participants rated those guns pictures as more distressing than the disease-y pictures. But, the guns pictures stimulated barely a 6% increase in IL-6 production, which is pretty negligible. By contrast, the disease-y pictures (which, remember, were rated as actually being less subjectively stressful) stimulated a whopping 23% increase in IL-6 production. So, clearly, the story here ain't just stress. It seems that there is something specific about seeing people who look diseased that triggers the immune system to kick it into a higher gear.

DTK: So any suggestion of disease begins my immune system. That seems to make adaptive sense, no?

MS: In fact, it was a conversation with an evolutionary psychologist - Steve Gangestad - that gave me the idea to the do the study. My students and I had been doing research on cognitive mechanisms that facilitate the behavioral avoidance of disease-y people, and then I ran into Steve at a conference and he wondered out loud about the possibility of an adaptive connection between these cognitive mechanisms and the "real" immune system. So, yeah, it makes enormous evolutionary sense. Here's one way to think about it: Immunological responses sure are useful, but they come at a cost. (Inflammation ain't fun, and IL-6 doesn't grown on trees.) So it could be debilitating if your immune system was fighting infections super-aggressively all the time. Far better for you (and for your ultimate reproductive success) if your immune system was calibrated to respond selectively aggressively - to do so under circumstances in which the threat of infection seems especially acute. Here's where visual information comes in handy. If you see a bunch of people around you who look sick, that's a pretty good indicator that you're in imminent danger of infection. Which means that this is one of those times when it'd be wise to allocate more of those precious bodily resources to mount an especially vigorous immunological defense.

DTK: It's one thing to show that visual information somehow triggers a more aggressive immune response. It's another thing entirely to explain exactly how it does it. What's the mechanism?

MS: That's an interesting question, and to be honest, we really don't know the answer. In our article, we offer some speculations about how subjective appraisals of threat trigger the production of hormones, such as cortisol and norepinephrine, that bind to receptors on immune cells, and about how parts of the sympathetic nervous system connect the brain to lymphoid organs, releasing neuropeptides and neurotransmitters that modulate immune function. I won't bore you with the details because, frankly, that's not my area of expertise (or to put it less generously: I'm a total moron about stuff like that, and I'm just lucky to have colleagues like Greg Miller and Edith Chen, who aren't). The bottom line is that there are lots of neurochemical pathways that allow the things going on in our big brains to exert an influence on immunological defense, but we just don't know what specific mechanisms are involved in this specific effect. It's an important topic for future research.


UserPostedImage
RaiderPride
15 years ago
Brilliant!


The key to a Successful 2010 season....


The Packers need to put photos of Justin Harrell in every players locker.
""People Will Probably Never Remember What You Said, And May Never Remember What You Did. However, People Will Always Remember How You Made Them Feel."
Nonstopdrivel
15 years ago
lol. +1
UserPostedImage
TheEngineer
15 years ago
This of course, begs the question, whether showing pictures of people in significantly immunosuppressed environments, such as a sterile lab, reduces one's immune status.
blank
Pack93z
15 years ago
NonStop's new health care plan... a device that floats sickly peoples imagines in front of every American for at least 4 hours a day.. kind like this. lol. ;)

UserPostedImage
"The oranges are dry; the apples are mealy; and the papayas... I don't know what's going on with the papayas!"
Nonstopdrivel
15 years ago
lol! +1
UserPostedImage
zombieslayer
15 years ago

Brilliant!


The key to a Successful 2010 season....


The Packers need to put photos of Justin Harrell in every players locker.

"RaiderPride" wrote:



+1
My man Donald Driver
UserPostedImage
(thanks to Pack93z for the pic)
2010 will be seen as the beginning of the new Packers dynasty. 🇹🇹 🇲🇲 🇦🇷
Fan Shout
Mucky Tundra (12h) : And James Flanigan is the grandson of Packers Super Bowl winner Jim Flanigan Sr.
Mucky Tundra (12h) : Jerome Bettis and Jim Flanigans sons as well!
Zero2Cool (19h) : Thomas Davis Jr is OLB, not WR. Oops.
Zero2Cool (19h) : Larry Fitzgeral and Thomas Davis sons too. WR's as well.
Mucky Tundra (5-Jul) : Kaydon Finley, son of Jermichael Finley, commits to Notre Dame
dfosterf (3-Jul) : Make sure to send my props to him! A plus move!
Zero2Cool (3-Jul) : My cousin, yes.
dfosterf (3-Jul) : That was your brother the GB press gazette referenced with the red cross draft props thing, yes?
Zero2Cool (2-Jul) : Packers gonna unveil new throwback helmet in few weeks.
Mucky Tundra (2-Jul) : I know it's Kleiman but this stuff writes itself
Mucky Tundra (2-Jul) : "Make sure she signs the NDA before asking for a Happy Ending!"
Mucky Tundra (2-Jul) : @NFL_DovKleiman Powerful: Deshaun Watson is taking Shedeur Sanders 'under his wing' as a mentor to the Browns QBs
Zero2Cool (30-Jun) : Dolphins get (back) Minkah Fitzpatrick in trade
Zero2Cool (30-Jun) : Steelers land Jalen Ramsey via Trade
dfosterf (26-Jun) : I think it would be great to have someone like Tom Grossi or Andy Herman on the Board of Directors so he/they could inform us
dfosterf (26-Jun) : Fair enough, WPR. Thing is, I have been a long time advocate to at least have some inkling of the dynamics within the board.
wpr (26-Jun) : 1st world owners/stockholders problems dfosterf.
Martha Careful (25-Jun) : I would have otherwise admirably served
dfosterf (25-Jun) : Also, no more provision for a write-in candidate, so Martha is off the table at least for this year
dfosterf (25-Jun) : You do have to interpret the boring fine print, but all stockholders all see he is on the ballot
dfosterf (25-Jun) : It also says he is subject to another ballot in 2028. I recall nothing of this nature with Murphy
dfosterf (25-Jun) : Ed Policy is on my ballot subject to me penciling him in as a no.
dfosterf (25-Jun) : I thought it used to be we voted for the whatever they called the 45, and then they voted for the seven, and then they voted for Mark Murphy
dfosterf (25-Jun) : Because I was too lazy to change my address, I haven't voted fot years until this year
dfosterf (25-Jun) : of the folks that run this team. I do not recall Mark Murphy being subject to our vote.
dfosterf (25-Jun) : Ed Policy yay or nay is on the pre-approved ballot that we always approve because we are uninformed and lazy, along with all the rest
dfosterf (25-Jun) : Weird question. Very esoteric. For stockholders. Also lengthy. Sorry. Offseason.
Zero2Cool (25-Jun) : Maybe wicked wind chill made it worse?
Mucky Tundra (25-Jun) : And then he signs with Cleveland in the offseason
Mucky Tundra (25-Jun) : @SharpFootball WR Diontae Johnson just admitted he refused to enter a game in 41° weather last year in Baltimore because he felt “ice cold”
Zero2Cool (24-Jun) : Yawn. Rodgers says he is "pretty sure" this be final season.
Zero2Cool (23-Jun) : PFT claims Packers are having extension talks with Zach Tom, Quay Walker.
Mucky Tundra (20-Jun) : GB-Minnesota 2004 Wild Card game popped up on my YouTube page....UGH
beast (20-Jun) : Hmm 🤔 re-signing Walker before Tom? Sounds highly questionable to me.
Mucky Tundra (19-Jun) : One person on Twitter=cannon law
Zero2Cool (19-Jun) : Well, to ONE person on Tweeter
Zero2Cool (19-Jun) : According to Tweeter
Zero2Cool (19-Jun) : Packers are working on extension for LT Walker they hope to have done before camp
dfosterf (18-Jun) : E4B landed at Andrews last night
dfosterf (18-Jun) : 101 in a 60
dfosterf (18-Jun) : FAFO
Zero2Cool (18-Jun) : one year $4m with incentives to make it up to $6m
dfosterf (18-Jun) : Or Lions
dfosterf (18-Jun) : Beats the hell out of a Vikings signing
Zero2Cool (18-Jun) : Baltimore Ravens now have signed former Packers CB Jaire Alexander.
dfosterf (14-Jun) : TWO magnificent strikes for touchdowns. Lose the pennstate semigeezer non nfl backup
dfosterf (14-Jun) : There was minicamp Thursday. My man Taylor Engersma threw
dfosterf (11-Jun) : There will be a mini camp practice Thursday.
Zero2Cool (11-Jun) : He's been sporting a ring for a while now. It's probably Madonna.
Martha Careful (10-Jun) : We only do the tea before whoopee, it relaxes me.
Please sign in to use Fan Shout
2025 Packers Schedule
Sunday, Sep 7 @ 3:25 PM
LIONS
Thursday, Sep 11 @ 7:15 PM
COMMANDERS
Sunday, Sep 21 @ 12:00 PM
Browns
Sunday, Sep 28 @ 7:20 PM
Cowboys
Sunday, Oct 12 @ 3:25 PM
BENGALS
Sunday, Oct 19 @ 3:25 PM
Cardinals
Sunday, Oct 26 @ 7:20 PM
Steelers
Sunday, Nov 2 @ 12:00 PM
PANTHERS
Monday, Nov 10 @ 7:15 PM
EAGLES
Sunday, Nov 16 @ 12:00 PM
Giants
Sunday, Nov 23 @ 12:00 PM
VIKINGS
Thursday, Nov 27 @ 12:00 PM
Lions
Sunday, Dec 7 @ 12:00 PM
BEARS
Sunday, Dec 14 @ 3:25 PM
Broncos
Friday, Dec 19 @ 11:00 PM
Bears
Friday, Dec 26 @ 11:00 PM
RAVENS
Saturday, Jan 3 @ 11:00 PM
Vikings
Recent Topics
22h / Random Babble / Martha Careful

4-Jul / Green Bay Packers Talk / wpr

2-Jul / Green Bay Packers Talk / dfosterf

2-Jul / Fantasy Sports Talk / dfosterf

1-Jul / Green Bay Packers Talk / wpr

29-Jun / Green Bay Packers Talk / Zero2Cool

25-Jun / Around The NFL / Martha Careful

23-Jun / Green Bay Packers Talk / Mucky Tundra

20-Jun / Green Bay Packers Talk / wpr

20-Jun / Green Bay Packers Talk / beast

20-Jun / Green Bay Packers Talk / beast

18-Jun / Random Babble / Zero2Cool

16-Jun / Green Bay Packers Talk / dfosterf

15-Jun / Random Babble / Martha Careful

14-Jun / Around The NFL / beast

Headlines
Copyright © 2006 - 2025 PackersHome.com™. All Rights Reserved.