Perceived Vulnerability to Disease Questionnaire: Factor structure, psychometric properties and gender differences

Abstract The evolutionary psychological approach links evolved mechanisms of disease-avoidance to prejudices against individuals perceived as a threat to health. Perceived vulnerability to disease works as an adaptive strategy which explains why individuals perceived as a source of contagion are avoided. The self-report Perceived Vulnerability to Disease Questionnaire, PVDQ, is one of the most widely used to measure subjective vulnerability to disease, however, neither test–retest reliability has been studied nor has factor structure been confirmed so far in this questionnaire. In the present study, a sample of 878 participants completed the PVDQ. Subsamples also completed different scales …