Introduction to the special issue: evolutionary and biopsychosocial perspectives on sickness communication

TL;DR

This paper introduces a special issue exploring how sickness is communicated through verbal and nonverbal signals from evolutionary and biopsychosocial perspectives.

Contribution

The paper highlights the novelty of examining sickness communication as a social phenomenon with evolutionary roots in caregiving behaviors.

Findings

Sickness communication involves both verbal and nonverbal signals.

These signals may influence pathogen transmission and caregiving systems.

The issue emphasizes the need for more attention to sickness as a social phenomenon.

Abstract

Here, we introduce the EMPH special issue on Evolutionary and Biopsychosocial Perspectives on Sickness Communication. This Commentary provides an overview of each article and places them in the wider context of sickness as a social phenomenon with verbal and nonverbal signals. This Commentary, and the special issue, in general, calls for greater attention to these signals that can affect pathogen transmission and may be at the evolutionary root of our caregiving systems and behaviours.