Recontextualizing the Behavioral Immune System Within Psychoneuroimmunology

We believe that the concept of the behavioral immune system (BIS) picks out an important set of phenomena, namely, the relationships between the immune system and disease-avoidant psychology. However, our enthusiasm is tempered by the recognition that (a) there are unresolved ambiguities in the BIS concept, which has been used in a variety of (sometimes inconsistent) ways; (b) many types of phenomena it has been used to identify are already well characterized in other disciplines that have received inadequate attention by BIS researchers; and that (c) these disciplines offer a broader contextualization of the phenomena. We argue that the BIS concept should be recontextualized within and integrated with such research programs. More specifically, we believe that the BIS should be set within the framework of psychoneuroimmunology. We consider several ways in which the BIS might be differentiated from psychoneuroimmunology, arguing that none of these clearly sets the BIS apart. These include (a) the notion of the BIS a purely defensive, prophylactic response to disease threats; (b) the BIS as concerned primarily with disgust-related responses; (c) the BIS’s role in generating large-scale effects of pathogens on social structure; (d) the BIS as a primarily psychological, rather than a mechanistic, account of psycho-immune interactions; and (e) the BIS as a specifically evolutionary, rather than descriptive, approach to disease-avoidant psychology and behavior. We believe that centering BIS research within psychoneuroimmunology will better capture the value and novelty of BIS research, more accurately reflect the intentions of BIS researchers, and better advance their aims.