Mate preferences and infectious disease: theoretical considerations and evidence in humans

Abstract

Mate preferences may operate in part to mitigate the threats posed by infectious disease. In this paper, we outline various ways in which preferring healthy mates can offer direct benefits in terms of pathogen avoidance and indirect benefits in terms of heritable immunity to offspring, as well as the costs that may constrain mate preferences for health. We then pay special attention to empirical work on mate preferences in humans given the depth and breadth of research on human mating. We review this literature and comment on the degree to which human mate preferences may reflect preferences for health.

Evolutionary medicine: its scope, interest and potential

“…Subsequent work demonstrated that these women married such men significantly less frequently than would be expected [74], suggesting that some of human mate choice may be based on MHC matching achieved by communication between the immune system and the nervous system [75]. (For a recent review of human mate preferences and indicators of partners' health, see [76].) (d) Degenerative disease (i) The evolution of ageing The explanation of why we grow old and die is one of the triumphs of evolutionary biology.…”

Mating strategy, disgust, and food neophobia

“…Buss, 2003Buss, , 2012) may translate into higher standards for immune robustness. Indeed, women prize health and immunological competence in mate selection (Buss, 1989;Gangestad & Thornhill, 1997a;Stevenson, Case, & Oaten, 2011;Thornhill & Møller, 1997;Tybur & Gangestad, 2011). Evidence shows that women declare "good health" to be important in a mate (Buss, 1989(Buss, , 2003.…”

“…Evidence shows that women declare "good health" to be important in a mate (Buss, 1989(Buss, , 2003. They are turned off by signs of infection (Curtis et al, 2004;Ford & Beach, 1951), and are attracted to faces they perceive to be healthy (Henderson & Anglin, 2003;Jones et al, 2001), as well as physical features hypothesized to indicate health and robust immune function (Thornhill & Gangestad, 1993Tybur & Gangestad, 2011). Advertising one's immunological robustness -for instance, by displaying food neophilic tendencies -should therefore result in particularly pronounced mating benefits for men.…”

The sociality–health–fitness nexus: synthesis, conclusions and future directions

“…These perspectives have been applied to human mate preferences, for example, by investigating the hypothesis that people strategically prefer mates who are likely to produce offspring characterized by strong immune systems. Empirical evidence has tested-and supported-many specific hypotheses that focus on preferences for mates characterized by specific phenotypic cues that are likely to be honest signals of immunocompetence [52].…”

“…Behavioural traits subject to sexual selection are proximately involved in regulating access to mates, in actual mate choice and in defining mating patterns, and their evolutionary consequences impact a species' social organization [51]. Sexual selection acts through two main processes that also have downstream consequences for animals' health and, of course, for their reproductive success [52]. According to classical sex roles, competition among males is evaluated through intrasexual selection, whereas intersexual selection leads to non-random mating because females exercise mate choice to maximize direct or indirect benefits of choosing particular males [53,54].…”