Abstract
- This study proposes a theoretical model of the Behavioural Immune System (BIS) as an optimal life-history strategy to maximize an individual’s reproductive fitness.
- Diseases not only harm an individual’s survival and reproductive success but also carry the risk of disease transmission to relatives, particularly offspring.
- We employ the finite-horizon stochastic dynamic programming method by taking the reproductive capacity and the number of current offspring as state variables.
- The results suggest that a lower reproduction rate drives a higher activation of the behavioural immune reactionunder certain condition.