This talk will detail the basic ideas behind how we incorporated behavioral factors into the contact rates of classical epidemiological models. This departure from relative frequency dependence creates a feedback between infectious disease dynamics and decisions driving host contact. This approach explores the determinants of decisions about the number and type of contacts made by individuals, using insights and methods from economics. We show how the approach has the potential both to improve predictions of the course of infectious disease, and to support development of novel approaches to infectious disease management.