Contention, consensus, and the behavioral immune system: From the forum forward

Research on the Behavioral Immune System (BIS) has made impressive gains in a short period of time. Distilled from the 7 thoughtful contributions to this forum, the author highlights 3 sets of ideas for moving BIS theory and research forward: (a) The benefits to be gained via additional vertical and horizontal conceptual integration, and via greater specificity in the articulation of mechanisms to capture the complexity of pathogen-relevant phenomena; (b) the need to take great care in selecting methods tightly appropriate to the specific hypotheses (and alternative hypotheses) BIS researchers are (and should be) testing; and (c) the need to avoid the disciplinary ethnocentrism that confronts many multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary endeavors.