The evolution of social attractiveness and its role in shame, humiliation, guilt and therapy

“& Retzinger, 1991) or social status (Gilbert, 1997), or simply an acceptance of”

“Thus, for example, people report experiencing shame and guilt when they behave in ways that would elicit a negative social response, such as by violating social norms or shared values (Gilbert, 1997; Parker, 1998; Tangney, 1991).”

“Extensive scarring, skin ulcers, and scarring alopecia affect the patient’s sense of well-being, their body image, and their quality of life, leading to difficulties in their social adjustment (shame, humiliation, isolation, and self-perceived discrimination), depression, and possible negative health behaviors (8,9).”

“In evolutionary terms, competing for scarce resources is one of the most primitive behaviours to increase fitness and the potential to acquire such resources is thought to underlie social status conferral (Gilbert, 1997).”

“Losing status and attractiveness or being rejected or excluded from a group or relationship one wishes to be part of is a common source of shame.(18) Although feelings of shame and pride are important factors in a person’s evaluation of self and have served a purpose of social control and behavior regulation in civili…”

“Humiliation is thought to be very pervasive in society, both at an inter-individual (Elison & Harter, 2007; Gilbert, 1997; Hartling & Luchetta, 1999; Kendler, Hettema, Butera, Gardner, & Prescott, Correspondence should be addressed to: Marte Otten, Department of Social Psychology, University of…”

“Shame is a ‘social’ emotion that results from interactions with others (Ashforth & Humphrey, 1995; Fischer & Tangney, 1995; Gilbert, 1997), and the experience of shame makes individuals feel concerned about social evaluations (Behrendt & Ben-Ari, 2012; cf. Agrawal et al., 2013).”

“A depressed person under such circumstances feels weak, inferior, and subject to depression (Gilbert, 1997).”

“Monitoring one's attractiveness to others has been referred to as social attention holding potential - that is, our ability to monitor and evaluate the kinds of attention we can elicit from others and hold (Gilbert, 1997, 2007).”

“, being a healthy person who does not smoke), people are motivated to correct their deviant behavior such that they can live up to their own ideals (Gilbert, 1997).”

“In this sense it is argued that, when we achieve this, a sense of self as loveable and valued, and of the others as supportive and nurturing, is strengthened, and this creates a sense of safeness in the social domain (Baldwin, 1992, 1997; Gilbert, 1989, 1997, 2005; Mikulincer & Shaver, 2005).”

“…is associated with positive social outcomes (e.g., thinness is often equated with attractiveness, power and success in modern Western societies; Ferreira et al. 2013; Pinto-Gouveia et al. 2014) and is important for one's sense of safeness and self-worth (Gilbert 1989, 1997; Kurzban & Leary 2001).”

“MANAGING SHAME 2 Managing Shame: An Interpersonal Perspective Although the management and repair of feelings of shame are relevant to a range of social processes, shame has often been viewed within the psychological literature as a clinical issue, in part because of the link between chronic shame…”

“London: Sherwood, Gilbert, and Piper. Quervain, D. J. F., Fischbacher, U., Treyer, V., Schellhammer, M., Schnyder, U., Buck, A., et al. (2004). The neural basis of altruistic punishment.”

“…disorders such as low self-esteem, depression, general anxiety disorder, suicidal intentions, homicide and (domestic) violence (e.g., Klein, 1991; Gilbert, 1997; Hartling and Luchetta, 1999; Farmer and McGuffin, 2003; Kendler et al., 2003; Leary et al., 2003; Elison and Harter, 2007; Torres and…”

“While definitions of shame vary, a key element is the sense that other’s view oneself as flawed or inferior (Gilbert, 1997; Kim Thibodeau, & Jorgensen, 2011; Wiechelt, 2007).”

“…(Caryl, 1988) in the attracting competitive arenas it is on social holding potential147 (SAHP); that is the ability to influence the minds of others positively such that one148 is seen as a valued, desired and attractive agent and avoid being marginalised or149 rejected (Gilbert, 1997, 2007).”

“There may well be a connection between the low response rate and feelings of shame (Gilbert, 1997).”

“Des sentiments négatifs de honte, de culpabilité, de gêne ou d’embarras attestent la prise de conscience émotionnelle par l’individu de la transgression de normes (Tangney, 1991 ; Miller et Leary, 1992 ; Gilbert, 1997 ; Keltner et Buswell, 1997 ; Eisenberg, 2000 ; Heywood, 2002).”

“(p. 277) It would appear that shame is related to the perception of the self as “unattractive”—not just as a failure to reach a standard (Gilbert, 1992, 1997, 2002); that is to say, “closeness to an undesired and unattractive self” is the issue at hand, rather than “distance from a desired self”…”

“Humans are particularly focused and responsive to what others think about the self (Gilbert, 2002, 2007) and feel the desire to create positive images of themselves in the eyes of others (Gilbert, 1997; Gilbert and McGuire, 1998).”

“Seton (2009) posited that actors may face social disapproval, and the experience of being disapproved of is associated with shame (Gilbert, 1997).”

“communicating submission (Gilbert 1997).”

“…by a dominant other (social defeat), that one is unable to escape an uncontrollable set of circumstances (entrapment) and the giving up of competing with others, including the signalling of one’s intention to avoid conflict (submissive behavior) (Allan & Gilbert, 1995, 1997; Gilbert & Allan, 1998).”

“This conclusion is consistent with a CFT-based perspective, which contextualizes shame as an emotion that has evolved to support adherence to social norms and values andmaintain levels of social status and attractiveness (Gilbert, 1997).”

“Compared with non-human animals, status in humans depends less heavily on fighting ability or readiness to submit to the powerful (Gilbert, 1997; Fessler, 1999) and more heavily on the individual’s ability and willingness to confer benefits (Durkee, Lukaszewski, & Buss, 2020; Eisenbruch, Grillot,…”

“People intuitively protect it even when they act in anonymous choice settings (Jordan & Rand, 2019), and when they fail to protect it they feel guilt and shame (Gilbert, 1997; Tanaka et al., 2015).”

“Derived from the work of Buss and Craik (1986), the SBS was developed by Gilbert and Allan (1994) and refined by Allan and Gilbert (1997).”

“This is because people have an intrinsic motivation to maintain a positive social image and to correct their aberrant behaviors when they perceive their social images are threatened (Gilbert, 1997; Kim et al., 2018).”

“The two emotions differ in several ways, such as whether the focus of self-evaluation is the global self (shame) or a certain behavior (guilt; Tangney & Dearing, 2002), or whether hiding behavior (shame) or reparation behavior (guilt) is elicited (Gilbert, 1997).”

“Depressive symptoms such as social withdrawal remove the individual from conflicts and other status-impairing situations that would negatively impact their social rank (Gilbert, 1997; Price, 1967).”

“In contrast, shame is linked to states of involuntary inferiority and subordination, and so eventually to issues about power and social attractiveness (Gilbert, 1997), intimacy and dependency (Harper and Hoopes, 1990).”

“Negative feelings like shame, guilt, embarrassment or unease, attest to the emotional awareness that individuals develop when transgressing norms (Tangney, 1991; Miller and Leary, 1992; Gilbert, 1997; Keltner and Buswell, 1997; Eisenberg, 2000; Heywood, 2002).”

“Guilt fosters a general interest in the wellbeing of others in the group, making individuals more responsive to each other’s distress, and hence, more likely to offer sympathy and aid (Gilbert, 1997).”

“Embarrassment is essentially linked to taboos, as its function is to alert and defend the self when the individual exposes something that he or she would prefer to keep concealed and perceives would lead to receiving negative or harmful attention (Gilbert, 1997; Robbins & Parlavecchio, 2006; Sznycer et al., 2016), for…”

“This sociobiological approach taken by Gilbert (1997) and others (de Waal, 1996; Fessler, 2007; Keltner, 1995; Leary, Britt, Cutlip, & Templeton, 1992; Leary, Landel & Patton, 1996) emphasizes the appeasement functions of shame that reaffirm the relative rank in a dominance hierarchy and minimize…”

“Based on Gilbert’s (1992, 1997) view of shame as an emotion corresponding to perceived low social rank, the OAS is currently a widely used self-report questionnaire measuring external shame.”

“, that the world is now dangerous) whereas, in interdependent cultures, alienation may act via the survivor feeling isolated from the group and that the self is not socially valued (self-perceived lack of social value/attractiveness impacts on one’s perceived social status; Gilbert, 1997).”

“Shamed individuals evaluate themselves as inadequate or inferior in both their own and other people’s eyes (Gilbert, 1997).”

“Their underlying sense of worthlessness and incompetency may elicit shame and motivates withdrawal and avoidance as the main behavioral outcome of shame (Gilbert 1997).”

“In contrast, external shame is believed to be characterized by thoughts about what others are thinking about the self (Gilbert, 1997).”

“This reputation maintenance function is compatible with the proposed adaptive function of shame (Fessler, 2007; Gilbert, 1997; Sznycer Running head: SELF-PUNISHMET AND SHAME 4 et al., 2012).”

“True, it has latterly emphasized the role of attention-attracting appeal (Gilbert, 1997; Gilbert et al., 1995), thereby echoing recent research acknowledging that human social hierarchies are rooted in prestige as much as dominance (Cheng et al.”

“Gilbert (1997) suggested that shame is an emergent consequence of the innate human desire to be perceived as attractive.”

“Shame appears to be a primary defense against the threat of being devalued by others (Gilbert, 1997, 1998; Gilbert & McGuire, 1998; Leary et al., 2001; Sznycer, 2010, 2019; Sznycer et al., in press).”

“In contrast, attention in prestige, and arguably also iconic status, hierarchies is linked to what is defined as the social attention-holding hypothesis (Gilbert, 1997).”

“Similarly, shame is considered to be a human survival mechanism (Gilbert, 1997).”

“These differences also become manifest in the functionality of both emotions: guilt motivates reparative behavior by making apologies and engaging in attempts to fix the situation, while shame motivates defensive and avoidance behavior, possibly serving as an innate mechanism of communicating submission [3].”