Modern WisdomHow Catching Covid Can Change Your Personality - Dr Diana Fleischman | Modern Wisdom Podcast 290
CHAPTERS
- 0:00 – 0:26
Post-COVID social anxiety and the question: can illness change personality?
Diana opens by describing a brief post-COVID period where she felt unusually socially anxious and wary of strangers. Chris frames the central topic: what it even means for a virus to “change your personality.”
- 0:26 – 1:37
Pathogens vs hosts: behavior manipulation, inflammation, and shifting priorities
They explore evidence that viruses/bacteria can influence host behavior to aid transmission, while the host’s own evolved priorities also shift during infection. Diana links COVID’s inflammation and immune signaling to broad changes in behavior and personality-relevant traits.
- 1:37 – 3:43
Aligned and misaligned incentives: sneezing, fever, and appetite suppression
Chris and Diana discuss how some sickness behaviors help both host and pathogen (e.g., sneezing), while others are host defenses (e.g., fever). Diana argues that common responses like appetite loss can be protective and energy-conserving.
- 3:43 – 6:45
Lassitude: the ‘emotion of being sick’ and social sensitivity under immune activation
Diana introduces ‘lassitude’ as a coordinated emotional/physiological state optimized for recovery and eliciting care. They cover experiments (endotoxin) showing increased rejection sensitivity and emotional reactivity during immune activation.
- 6:45 – 9:30
Why sick people crave comfort foods: safety, energy costs, and ‘food preference crystallization’
They unpack why illness drives a preference for familiar, simple foods and sometimes not eating at all. Diana connects this to pathogen avoidance, digestion costs, and childhood periods where “safe foods” are learned.
- 9:30 – 14:36
Needy when sick: signaling vulnerability, avoiding strangers, and relationship strain
Diana explains why sickness increases dependence on familiar allies and reduces openness to new social contact. They discuss signaling vulnerability to elicit caregiving and how chronic illness/inflammation can change relationship dynamics.
- 14:36 – 17:17
Faking sickness and social enforcement: costly signals and harsh ‘cures’ as deterrents
The conversation turns to deception—how people may exaggerate vulnerability to avoid costs. Diana describes how societies historically made faking expensive via unpleasant treatments, functioning as a credibility filter.
- 17:17 – 19:33
Pathogen load and culture: conservatism, conformity, and taboo logic
They discuss controversial research linking higher pathogen prevalence to greater cultural conservatism and conformity. The idea is that tradition can function as a low-risk, “already tested” behavioral package under high disease threat.
- 19:33 – 24:59
From zoonoses to factory farming: pandemics, ‘clean meat,’ and practical ethics
Diana argues that animal agriculture increases pandemic risk and that cultivated (“clean”) meat may be a realistic solution. Chris shares how animal-rights arguments shifted his behavior, and Diana emphasizes harm-reduction over purity.
- 24:59 – 32:49
Nature, hypocrisy, and cheap moral emotions: scandal and virtue signaling
They broaden into moral psychology: why people enjoy scandal and low-cost moral posturing. Diana notes the evolutionary logic of hypocrisy—condemning others while preserving one’s own behavior.
- 32:49 – 36:49
Long COVID, inflammation, and persistent personality shifts: smoke detector principle
Chris asks why illness effects would last beyond recovery. Diana describes long-hauler inflammation, links between inflammation and depression/anxiety, and uses the smoke detector principle to explain why bodies may ‘overreact’ for safety.
- 36:49 – 51:59
Sex, libido, and mating under disease threat: sex differences and life history strategies
They explore how infection risk reshapes mating dynamics, with women generally more sensitive to pathogen threat and libido suppression. Diana introduces life history theory (fast vs slow strategies) to predict divergent responses to mortality cues.
- 51:59 – 57:20
Asexuality, hormones, and modern dualism: resisting biological explanations
Diana discusses debates over asexuality (orientation vs condition) and argues many identity labels may describe normal variation. She emphasizes hormonal influences (e.g., testosterone effects) and critiques cultural discomfort with embodiment.
- 57:20 – 1:01:26
Predictability, ‘counter-control,’ and the future of behavioral inference from faces and data
They examine why people dislike being predictable: it implies control by others. Diana cites counter-control and argues that AI/governments may infer traits (sex, orientation cues, generosity, psychopathy risk) from faces and behavior—raising discomfort and political tension.
- 1:01:26 – 1:09:37
Evolutionary psychology as self-knowledge: meditation, rumination, and seeing the ‘source code’
Chris and Diana close by reflecting on evo psych as a framework for understanding motivations and mindfulness experiences. Diana shares retreat experiences and how explanatory frames can make inner noise more intelligible—though not fully escapable.
