The Laws of Contagion

People will literally go out of their way to avoid touching something someone they dislike owns. They will automatically reach for the stuffed animal their sweetheart gave them to derive comfort from it. Coming into contact with something can take on a different meaning when it came from a person you particularly like or dislike. It's as if the essence of the person is somehow transferred to you via the object. The idea that essences can be transmitted is called sympathetic magic. There are several different types of sympathetic magic, one of which is known as the law of contagion. This is the idea that once in contact, always in contact.

Contagion effects have been found to be stronger with negative essences than positive ones. The source of the essence does not necessarily have to be a person. Food placed in an undesirable container, such as a bed pan, has been found to be less appealing than it would be otherwise.

There are two types of contagion, forward and backward. In the former, the essence of a non-neutral substance or person is passed on to the individual; in backward contagion, an individual's object is given to a non-neutral person. Rozin and others (1989) studied people's reaction to contagion of negative and positive individuals using forward and backward tests. Using a 200 point scale, they measured participants reaction to the thought of contact with several objects (i.e., sweater, brush) that had been previously handled by two people they like and two they didn't. The research found that the effect of a negative essence is stronger than a positive one, and forward contagion is rated worse than backward. The law of contagion affects American adults in a wide variety of objects.

A further aspect of contagion is the question of disgust as it pertains to food. Contagion in food takes on a different aspect because it often deals with actual contamination which might cause a person to become ill. However, when contamination is not a possibility, the law of contagion still manages to have a powerful effect: a sterilize cockroaches dropped into a favorite type of juice makes the drink suddenly less than appealing. (Rozin et al., 1986).

This effect starts at a young age as Fallon, Rozin, and Pliner (1984) showed. Four different age groups were presented with stories away a beverage was contaminated by several different objects, ranging from neutral to dangerous. They were asked to rate the appeal of the different beverages and different stages of contamination using a smiley face as a rating. The participants were also asked why they rated things the way they did. Certain objects were more universally unappealing than others, but as a person grow older their degree of disgust and desire for cleanliness increased. However, even young children grasp the idea of contamination and found certain mixtures unsavory. Remember "cooties"?

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