TY - JOUR
T1 - Illness in childhood predicts face preferences in adulthood
AU - De Barra, Mícheál
AU - deBruine, Lisa M.
AU - Jones, Benedict C.
AU - Mahmud, Zahid Hayat
AU - Curtis, Valerie A.
PY - 2013/11/1
Y1 - 2013/11/1
N2 - The value of different mate choices may depend on the local pathogen ecology and on personal infection susceptibility: when there is a high risk of infection, choosing a healthy or immunocompetent mate may be particularly important. Frequency of childhood illness may act as a cue of the ecological and immunological factors relevant to mate preferences. Consistent with this proposal, we found that childhood illness - and frequency of diarrhea in particular - was positively correlated with preferences for exaggerated sex-typical characteristics in opposite-sex, but not same-sex, faces. Moreover, this relationship was stronger among individuals with poorer current health. These data suggest that childhood illness may play a role in calibrating adult mate preferences and have implications for theories of disease-avoidance psychology, life-history strategy and cross-cultural differences in mate preferences.
AB - The value of different mate choices may depend on the local pathogen ecology and on personal infection susceptibility: when there is a high risk of infection, choosing a healthy or immunocompetent mate may be particularly important. Frequency of childhood illness may act as a cue of the ecological and immunological factors relevant to mate preferences. Consistent with this proposal, we found that childhood illness - and frequency of diarrhea in particular - was positively correlated with preferences for exaggerated sex-typical characteristics in opposite-sex, but not same-sex, faces. Moreover, this relationship was stronger among individuals with poorer current health. These data suggest that childhood illness may play a role in calibrating adult mate preferences and have implications for theories of disease-avoidance psychology, life-history strategy and cross-cultural differences in mate preferences.
KW - behavioral immune system
KW - facial attractiveness
KW - infectious disease
KW - predictive adaptive response
KW - sexual dimorphism
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84885372441&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2013.07.001
DO - 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2013.07.001
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84885372441
SN - 1090-5138
VL - 34
SP - 384
EP - 389
JO - Evolution and Human Behavior
JF - Evolution and Human Behavior
IS - 6
ER -