Evolution and social anxiety - The role of attraction, social competition, and social hierarchies

This article outlines some basic ideas of an evolutionary approach to psychopathology. It focuses on human competition "to be seen as attractive" in order to elicit the investment of resources from others (e.g., approval, support, and care). It is argued that social anxiety may be a form of competitive anxiety, triggered in contexts where individuals see themselves as relatively low in the status hierarchy of desirable attributes and/or at risk of losing status (and control over social resources such as approval, help, and support) by being seen as having undesirable attributes. To improve (or defend) their position and garner the investments of others (e.g., win approval, support, friendships or status, or defend their status) requires a competitive venture; however, in attempting to compete, social phobics automatically recruit various evolved modules and mentalities for behaving in competitive arenas when one is low in the hierarchy (e.g., social comparison, placating dominant others and various submissive defenses such as concealment, high self-monitoring, and eye-gaze avoidance). These previously adaptive subordinate defenses interfere with status acquisition based on demonstrating attractive attributes to others.