The understanding that immunity could be strengthened in the general population (e.g., through vaccine interventions) supported global advances upon acute infectious disease epidemics in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. However, in the twenty-first century, global populations face chronic disease epidemics. Research demonstrates that diseases largely emerge from health risk behavior. The understanding of how health behavior, like the biological immune system, can be strengthened in the general population, could support advances in the twenty-first century. To consider how health behavior can be strengthened in the general population, the authors present a theoretical model of population health behavior. The model operationalizes health behavior as a system of functions that, like the biological immune system, exists in each member of the population. Constructs are presented that operationalize the specific decisions and habits that drive health behavior and behavior change in the general population. The constructs allow the authors to present parallels (1) among existing behavior change theories and (2) between the proposed system and the biological immune system. Through these parallels, the authors introduce a model and a logic of population-level health behavior change. The Adaptive Behavioral Immune System is an integrative model of population health behavior.

关于可以在一般人群中增强免疫力的认识（例如，通过疫苗干预）支持了18、19和20世纪急性传染病流行的全球进展。然而，在二十一世纪，全球人口面临着慢性病的流行。研究表明，疾病很大程度上源于健康风险行为。公众对如何加强健康行为（如生物免疫系统）的理解可以支持二十一世纪的进步。考虑如何普通人群的健康行为可以得到加强，作者提出了人群健康行为的理论模型。该模型将健康行为作为一种功能系统进行操作，该功能系统像生物免疫系统一样存在于人口的每个成员中。提出了构建可操作的特定决策和习惯的构造，这些决定和习惯推动了普通人群的健康行为和行为改变。这些结构使作者能够提出（1）现有行为改变理论之间的相似之处，以及（2）所提议的系统与生物免疫系统之间的相似之处。通过这些相似之处，作者介绍了人口级健康行为变化的模型和逻辑。适应性行为免疫系统是人群健康行为的综合模型。