Abstract
This study proposes a behavioral ecology model to examine changes in the level of interpersonal contact during the spread of disease. We designed a fitness-maximizing model based on the Behavioral Immune System to predict the optimal level of interpersonal contact under infection risk. Reducing contact with infectious agents is a well-known adaptive behavioral strategy during disease spread. However, in the case of highly contagious diseases, reducing contact levels may not yield substantial benefits in terms of transmission avoidance. There by maintaining or slightly decreasing the original contact level may be advantageous. This could explain the lower adherence to social distancing policies during outbreaks of highly contagious diseases. It should be noted that this model is a simplified mathematical model, which does not consider the coevolution of pathogens and hosts.