Social anxiety in modern societies from an evolutionary perspective

Abstract

This study seeks to frame the evolutionary roots of why people strive for attractiveness, and how seeking social status and the desire to be accepted by peers in today’s society may cause psychological distress and social anxiety. The central aim of the present study is twofold. First, the goal is to break down biological selection into its component parts to understand the evolution of key human traits that consequently make social status concerns and social anxiousness reasonable and adaptive. The second goal is to highlight the socioeconomic conditions that may enhance people’s propensity to develop social anxiety. This study proposes that an evolutionary approach to social anxiety should rely on a broad concept of social selection (grouped into nonsexual social selection, intersexual selection, and intrasexual selection). Furthermore, the overwhelming visualisation of differences in quality and conspicuous displays of status markers in modern societies may act as psychological stressors that increase people’s propensity to develop social anxiety. Understanding how the evolved human mind and behavioural strategies respond to socioeconomic and sociocultural circumstances is relevant both in the formation of public policy and in clinical health services aiming to benefit public health.