照顧者所知覺之患者的疾病特性會影響到個人對病患的行為反應，本研究以照顧者為焦點，來探討疾病特性對於照顧行為與社會距離的影響。本研究採用類實驗設計，在社區與校園邀請127名成年人，隨機分派至不同疾病特性（疾病成因，包含感染與遺傳兩種；疾病後果，包含致命、失能以及變形三種）的模擬情境，讓受試自評對於不同類別之病患的社會距離與照顧行為。結果發現，疾病成因對於社會距離具有主要效果，照顧者對感染性疾病患者的社會距離顯著高於遺傳性疾病患者的社會距離。值得一提的是，在具有致命性後果的疾病中，兩者間無顯著差異。而疾病後果對於社會距離同樣具有主要效果，照顧者對於失能性疾病患者的社會距離高於致命性患者的社會距離；但在非感染性的疾病，後果則無顯著差異。此外，疾病後果是影響照顧行為之主要因素，致命性疾患所獲得的照顧明顯高於失能與變形兩種疾病後果患者。而且，疾病成因與疾病後果形成交互作用，只要在對於會造成變形後果的疾病中，照顧者對於感染性疾病患者所付出的照顧行為明顯低於非感染性疾病患者的照顧行為；但在致命性與失能性疾疾病中，則無此差異存在。從本研究可發現，疾病特性中的疾病成因與疾病後果，對於社會距離與照顧行為之影響具有交互作用。

The characteristics of the disease would influence the caregiver’s response to the patients. In this study, the influence of the disease characteristics to the caregivers’ social distance and caring behaviors will be explored. 127 adults from the community are randomly assigned to six analogue disease situations. In the situations, the subject completed the social distance scale and the caring behavior scale. In the result, the infection and the consequence of the disease will influence the social distance. In the infective disease situation, people will have more social distance to patients with disability and disfigurement. Although, the infective disease related high social distance, there was not different in the fetal condition. The consequence of the disease will influence the caring behavior. In the infective disease situation, the fetal patient will get more caring, but there was not different in the genetics condition. The cause and the consequence in the characteristics of the disease were played the important role in the social distance and caring behavior.