Washington: Social scientists have discovered a link between a person's culture and how one classifies being ill. The biological response from the body comes naturally in the form of physical and mental sensations when a person feels sick. The strength and severity of these sensations go beyond biology and may be affected by gender, ethnicity and various social norms we all have internalised.
Social scientists think that a person's values may shape internal views on "socially appropriate sickness." This has implications on how different individuals may take more action in dealing with illness rather than spreading further disease. The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Behavioural Neuroscience.
Eric Shattuck, a biological anthropologist with UTSA's Institute for Health Disparities Research; sociology professor Thankam Sunil, who is director of the IHDR; and Xiaohe Xu, chair of UTSA's Department of Sociology, found that sickness expression is affected by gender, income and cultural values.
Specifically, study participants who (1) earned less than the U.S. median household income, (2) claimed to be stoics with a high tolerance for pain or (3) had symptoms of depression were more likely to express being sick. In men with stronger family bonds, feeling sick was also more likely to be reported.
"It's ironic. You think that being a stoic would mean that you are more likely to be reserved, but according to our survey, it has the opposite effect," said Shattuck. "Stoics could own up to being ill as a bragging right and maintain a disease for longer than is necessary." According to the researchers, stoics -- regardless of gender--and individuals with household incomes lower than USD 60,000 were more likely to claim to be ill.
"In regard to lower-income levels, perhaps those individuals were more likely to claim to have been sick because they didn't necessarily have the means to seek medical attention and, therefore, symptoms became severe," added Shattuck.
