Authors
Michal Kandrik, Amanda C Hahn, Claire I Fisher, Joanna Wincenciak, Lisa M DeBruine, Benedict C Jones
Publication date
2017/1/1
Journal
Hormones and Behavior
Volume
87
Pages
57-61
Publisher
Academic Press
Description
Behaviors that minimize exposure to sources of pathogens can carry opportunity costs. Consequently, how individuals resolve the tradeoff between the benefits and costs of behavioral immune responses should be sensitive to the extent to which they are vulnerable to infectious diseases. However, although it is a strong prediction of this functional flexibility principle, there is little compelling evidence that individuals with stronger physiological immune responses show weaker behavioral immune responses. Here we show that men with the combination of high testosterone and low cortisol levels, a hormonal profile recently found to be associated with particularly strong physiological immune responses, show weaker preferences for color cues associated with carotenoid pigmentation. Since carotenoid cues are thought to index vulnerability to infectious illnesses, our results are consistent with the functional flexibility …
Total citations
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