The Role of Indigenous Epidemic Folk Stories in Shaping Adaptive Disease-Related Behaviors in West Papua.

Epidemics rank among humanity's deadliest disasters, profoundly affecting societies across health, psychological, social, and economic domains. Past outbreaks have left a unique cultural legacy in the form of epidemic folk stories that explain disease etiology and provide behavioral guidelines during crises. This aligns with theories suggesting that storytelling may serve as an adaptive mechanism facilitating transmission of survival-relevant information. We explored this premise among Indigenous people in West Papua, Indonesia. We interviewed 100 Asmat men, asking them to recall folk stories about past infectious diseases and report their attitudes toward coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We found that individuals more familiar with epidemic folk stories were more likely to express fear of COVID-19 and adopt social distancing behaviors during the pandemic. Content analysis revealed that these oral narratives emphasized themes such as dietary and good health practices (42%) and hygiene (23%), whereas direct recommendations for social isolation constituted only 12% of identified themes. This pattern suggests that folk stories may not primarily function as precise behavioral instruction manuals, but rather as mechanisms that sensitize individuals to potential disease-related threats. Consistent with this interpretation, exploratory mediation analyses were compatible with the Behavioral Immune System framework, suggesting that folk story knowledge may be associated with heightened sensitivity to pathogen-related cues, stronger emotional responses, and greater behavioral avoidance in threatening contexts. However, the cross-sectional and exploratory nature of our study precludes strong causal or temporal inferences. Longitudinal or experimental research is needed to test these hypotheses and provide stronger evidence for causal interpretation.