Social withdrawal is a well-established component of illness behavior, but in some contexts, sick animals may benefit from staying close rather than moving away. For example, sick individuals are more inclined to stay close to known individuals who can provide care and security (relatives) compared to when they are healthy. However, interactions with certain strangers may also be beneficial (e.g. health professionals), but it is not known how illness interacts with social behavior towards these individuals. Here, we assessed whether illness affects perception of caregivers, and developed a new task, the Caregiver Perception Task (CgPT). Twenty-six participants performed the CgPT, once after an injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 0.8 ng/kg body weight, n = 24), and once after an injection of saline (n = 25), one hour and forty-five minutes after the injection. During the task, participants watched short videos of three types of caregiver: a healthcare professional caring for a sick individual, a healthcare professional not caring for a sick individual, and a non-healthcare professional caring for his or her sick adult child or partner. After each video, sympathy, trust, professionalism and willingness to interact with and receive care from the caregiver were assessed on visual analog scales. Results showed that saline-injected participants rated healthcare professionals not caring for a sick individual less positively on all aspects compared to healthcare professionals caring for a sick individual. Furthermore, compared with saline, LPS increased participants' willingness to receive care from healthcare professionals and non-healthcare professionals providing care, but not from healthcare professionals not providing care. Thus, our results indicate that ill individuals may approach unknown individuals with the potential to provide care and support.