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

ABSTRACT:

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. We further hypothesized that such outward signals/cues of health status would vary based on context and sociocultural norms.

Methodology

We explored self-reported, recalled sickness behavior, communication style, demographics and theoretically relevant cultural factors in a large national US sample (n = 1259) using multinomial probit regr

SUBMITTER: Shattuck EC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8364984 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature