Kin selection
In 2015, Shakhar and Shakhar suggested instead that sickness behavior developed primarily because it protected the kin of infected animals from transmissible diseases. According to this theory, termed the Eyam hypothesis, after the English Parish of Eyam, sickness behavior protects the social group of infected individuals by limiting their direct contacts, preventing them from contaminating the environment, and broadcasting their health status. Kin selection would help promote such behaviors through evolution. In a highly prosocial species like humans, however, sickness behavior may act as a signal to motivate others to help and care for the sick individual.