Beliefs about a brighter future for all humanity as an evolutionary adaptation to pathogen prevalence
Haas B.W. Lou X. Yeung V.W.L. Li L.M.W. Hussain M.A. Joshanloo M. Bond M.H. Guemaz F. Boussena M. Sánchez-Rodríguez Á. Iter N. Vlasenko O. Lun V.M.-C. Aminnuddin N.A. Işık İ. Barry O. Fülöp M. Igbokwe D. Adamovic M. Garðarsdóttir R.B. Soboleva N. Teyssier J. Glückstad F.K. Park J. Akaliyski P. Yeung J.C. Yakhlef B. Wasiel A. Turjačanin V. Trà K.T.T. Torres C. Sokolov B. Sobhie R. Sirlopú D. Selim H. Samekin A. Rocha A.M. Rizwan M. Reza-A-Rabby M. Palikot E. Olechowski M. Okvitawanli A. Ochoa D. Nader M. Myślińska-Szarek K. Mosanya M. Mokadem F. Mohammed L. Maricchiolo F. Malyonova A. Malyonov A. Kazimzade E. Iqbal N. Górski M.R. Gjoneska B. Gamsakhurdia V. Espinosa A. Espinosa A.D. Denoux P. Bakyono-Nabaloum R. Andrade L. Almakaeva A. Al-Zoubi M. Akotia C. Akello G. Krys K.
December 2025Elsevier Ltd
Personality and Individual Differences
2025#247
An important question in cogntive and evolutionary psychology is how the human mind anticipates the future and copes with stress and risk of disease. The parasite-stress model suggests that many patterns of human behavior and thought are adaptations to varying levels of exposure to parasites and pathogens. A growing body of health psychology research shows a link between positive future thinking and resiliency to various forms of disease. In this study, we investigate the link between historical pathogen prevalence in countries and individuals perception of the future of humanity. We surveyed 18,981 participants across 68 nations, examining their beliefs about how well humanity will be doing 1000 years from now compared to the present. We found that individuals residing in regions with higher historical disease risk tend to have more positive views about the future of humanity than individuals residing in areas with lower historical disease risk. The difference could not be attributed to several other stress-inducing factors, such as climate stress, population density or objective or subjective socioeconomic indicators. This research contributes to a growing body of evidence demonstrating how disease risk shapes human cognition and encourages future exploration of the evolution of temporal forecasting and consciousness.
Collective future thinking , Evolution , Humanity , Parasite stress , Pathogen prevalence
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Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, United States
Department of Psychology, Lingnan University, Hong Kong
Department of Psychology and Centre for Psychosocial Health, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Department of Finance and Economics, College of Business Administration, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Department of Social Sciences and Business, Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark
Department of Psychology, Keimyung University, South Korea
Department of Management and Marketing, Faculty of Business, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Mohamed Lamine Debaghine, Setif 2, Setif, Algeria
Department of Social Psychology and Anthropology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
Faculty of Arts and Educational Sciences, Palestine Technical University – Kadoorie, Tulkarm, Palestine
Institute of Education Science, Osnabrück University, Osnabrück, Germany
Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Centre for Islamic Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Jalan Tungku Link, Brunei Darussalam
Department of Psychology, Bahçeşehir University, Istanbul, Turkey
Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal
Department of Psychology, Baze University, Abuja, Nigeria
Kings Business School, Kings College London, London, United Kingdom
Faculty of Psychology, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland
Ronald F. Inglehart Laboratory for Comparative Social Research, Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation
Département Psychologie Clinique Du Sujet, Université Toulouse II, Toulouse, France
Department of Management, Society & Communication, Copenhagen Business School, Frederiksberg, Denmark
of Education, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
Department of Sociology and Social Policy, Lingnan University, Hong Kong
Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
École Normale Supérieure of Constantine, Constantine, Algeria
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Banja Luka, Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Department of Psychology, HCMC University of Education, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam
Institute of Psychology, University of Brasilia, Brasília, Brazil
Interfaculty for Graduate Studies and Research, Anton de Kom University of Suriname, Paramaribo, Suriname
Faculty of Psychology and Humanities, Universidad San Sebastián, Concepción, Chile
King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
School of Liberal Arts, M. Narikbayev KAZGUU University, Astana, Kazakhstan
Catholic University of Angola, Luanda, Angola
Department of Clinical Psychology, National University of Medical Sciences, Rawalpindi, Pakistan
Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialisation, University of Padua, Italy
Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta, Indonesia
Department of Psychology, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
Department of Organizational Management, Universidad ICESI, Cali, Colombia
Department of Psychology, SWPS University, Sopot, Poland
Institute of Criminology and Public Safety, University of Trinidad and Tobago, Arima, Trinidad and Tobago
Department of Education, University of Roma Tre, Rome, Italy
Department of General and Social Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Dostoevsky Omsk State University, Omsk, Russian Federation
Department of Educational Psychology, Baku State University, Baku, Azerbaijan
Department of Psychology, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India
Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Skopje, North Macedonia
Department of Psychology, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia
Departamento Académico de Psicología, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Peru
Psychology Department, Iberoamerican University, Mexico City, Mexico
Département de Philosophie et de Psychologie, Université Joseph Ki-Zerbo, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan
Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana
Faculty of Medicine, Gulu University, Gulu, Uganda
BRAC Institute of Educational Development, BRAC University
Institute of Psychology, Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary, Budapest, Hungary
HUN-REN Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre of Natural Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
Department of Psychology
Department of Psychology
Department of Psychology and Centre for Psychosocial Health
Department of Finance and Economics
Department of Social Sciences and Business
Department of Psychology
Department of Management and Marketing
Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences
Department of Social Psychology and Anthropology
Faculty of Arts and Educational Sciences
Institute of Education Science
Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Centre for Islamic Studies
Department of Psychology
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Department of Psychology
Kings Business School
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Ronald F. Inglehart Laboratory for Comparative Social Research
Département Psychologie Clinique Du Sujet
Department of Management
of Education
Department of Sociology and Social Policy
Institute of Psychology
École Normale Supérieure of Constantine
Faculty of Philosophy
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Interfaculty for Graduate Studies and Research
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King Saud University
School of Liberal Arts
Catholic University of Angola
Department of Clinical Psychology
Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialisation
Faculty of Psychology
Department of Psychology
Department of Organizational Management
Department of Psychology
Institute of Criminology and Public Safety
Department of Education
Department of General and Social Psychology
Department of Educational Psychology
Department of Psychology
Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Department of Psychology
Departamento Académico de Psicología
Psychology Department
Département de Philosophie et de Psychologie
Department of Psychology
Department of Psychology
Faculty of Medicine
BRAC Institute of Educational Development
Institute of Psychology
HUN-REN Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology
Faculty of Psychology
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