Illness in childhood predicts face preferences in adulthood

Mícheál De Barra; Lisa M. deBruine; Benedict C. Jones; Zahid Hayat Mahmud; Valerie A. Curtis

doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2013.07.001

Illness in childhood predicts face preferences in adulthood

Mícheál De Barra, Lisa M. deBruine, Benedict C. Jones, Zahid Hayat Mahmud, Valerie A. Curtis

Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

25 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

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.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	384-389
Number of pages	6
Journal	Evolution and Human Behavior
Volume	34
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2013.07.001
Publication status	Published - 1 Nov 2013

Keywords

behavioral immune system
facial attractiveness
infectious disease
predictive adaptive response
sexual dimorphism

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abstract = "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.",

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AU - De Barra, Mícheál

AU - deBruine, Lisa M.

AU - Jones, Benedict C.

AU - Mahmud, Zahid Hayat

AU - Curtis, Valerie A.

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Illness in childhood predicts face preferences in adulthood

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Keywords

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