How many immune systems do you have? Most people would say that they have just one. But about ten years ago came evolutionary psychologists with a theory saying that we may have another one – a behavioral immune system.
Source: Pixabay.com by cocoparisienne CC0 Creative Commons
The behavioral immune system – BIS – is, based on this theory – the first line of defense against illness. It activates whenever our psyche think it is in danger of getting ill. No matter whether the danger is real or isn’t. A typical example may be whenever we hear someone cough. Evolutionary psychologists think BIS leads towards a prejudiced and evasive behavior towards people who show symptoms of being sick. And this brought them towards another interesting question. How does BIS influence how we choose our partners.
“We found that when the behavioral immune system was activated it seemed to put the brakes on our drive to connect with our peers socially.”
- Natsumi Sawada
The results were quite surprising. The scientists originally thought that when it came do initiating relationship the BIS will play a very small role in inhibiting our needs to procreate as all living being are quite motivated to procreate under almost any circumstance. But results of their studies show that our fear of getting ill is much stronger than we previously thought. Especially people who have a strong perceived vulnerability to diseases get affected by the activation of the BIS as they are much more selective of their potentials partners health while people with an average or lower perceived vulnerability to disease get affected much less.
Sources:
- https://www.futurity.org/behavioral-immune-system-dating-1745362-2/
- http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0146167217736046
