We Trade Germ Risk for Belonging

Across 61 societies and 40,000+ respondents, people report greater comfort with infection‑risky contact (everyday proximity and greeting touch) with individuals they value more, measured by choices that trade their own money for another's. This relationship holds within relationship types (friend, acquaintance, stranger, disliked) and is stronger for everyday contact than formal greetings, implying conventions restrict greeting variation. — If people accept contagion risk proportionally to relational value, public‑health policies and communications must account for social calculus (who people deem 'worth the risk') rather than assuming uniform adherence to distancing.