Signaling sickness: the role of recalled sickness behavior and psychosocial factors in shaping communication style.

Background And Objectives: Active infection results in several outward signs in humans, including visible symptoms, changes in behavior and possible alterations in skin color and gait. A potential adaptive function of these indicators is to signal distress and elicit care from close others. We hypothesized that sickness behavior, a suite of stereotypical changes in mood and behavior, also serves to communicate health status to others.

A latent profile analysis of the link between sociocultural factors and health-related risk-taking among U.S. adults.

Background: Research suggests that health/safety behaviors (e.g., drinking heavily) and medical behaviors (e.

The Contribution of Sociocultural Factors in Shaping Self-Reported Sickness Behavior.

Sickness behavior is an evolutionarily conserved phenomenon found across a diverse range of animals involving a change in motivational priorities to theoretically maximize energetic investment in immune function and recovery. Typical components of sickness behavior include reduced sociability and activity, changes in diet, and depressed affect. Importantly, however, sickness behavior appears to be subject to other demands of life history in animal models, including reproduction and offspring survival.