Disease Prevention Measures Affect the Ideal Mate Standards by Altering the Activation of Behavioral Immune System.

Abstract

Human mate selection is a critical precursor to reproduction and involves three key dimensions: physical attractiveness, resources, and good parenting. The behavioral immune system influences these mate standards, with pathogen threats increasing emphasis on physical attractiveness as health indicators. This study investigated whether modern disease prevention measures, such as sterile medical gloves, can affect individuals' ideal mate standards by altering behavioral immune system activation. Sixty-six Chinese undergraduate students were randomly assigned to wear sterile medical gloves (gloved condition) or not (ungloved condition) while reading a contaminated newspaper to simulate pathogen threat exposure. Participants then completed measures of disgust, mood, anxiety, and ideal mate standards across the three dimensions: physical attractiveness, resources, and good parenting. Following pathogen threat exposure, participants using sterile medical gloves showed significantly reduced disgust responses (indicating lowered behavioral immune system activation) and enhanced mood compared to ungloved participants. Crucially, gloved participants demonstrated decreased emphasis on physical attractiveness while simultaneously increasing their requirements for partners' resource acquisition abilities and parenting potential. Mediation analyses identified reduced disgust as the key mediator for the decreased focus on physical attractiveness. Enhanced mood provided an additional mediating pathway, reducing both physical attractiveness and resource requirements. Beyond these emotional mediators, sterile medical glove use exhibited significant direct effects on resource and parenting standards. These results suggest that disease prevention measures can systematically alter ideal mate standards following pathogen threat exposure by altering behavioral immune system activation. This study provides the first empirical evidence that modern disease prevention technologies can influence fundamental aspects of human mate selection through effects on evolved pathogen avoidance mechanisms, highlighting the adaptability of mate standards to modern disease prevention practices in contemporary societies.