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Anxiety: An Evolutionary Approach
Open accessAbstract
Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental illnesses, with huge attendant suffering. Current treatments are not universally effective, suggesting that a deeper understanding of the causes of anxiety is needed. To understand anxiety disorders better, it is first necessary to understand the normal anxiety response. This entails considering its evolutionary function as well as the mechanisms underlying it. We argue that the function of the human anxiety response, and homologues in other species, is to prepare the individual to detect and deal with threats. We use a signal detection framework to show that the threshold for expressing the anxiety response ought to vary with the probability of threats occurring, and the individual's vulnerability to them if they do occur. These predictions are consistent with major patterns in the epidemiology of anxiety. Implications for research and treatment are discussed.
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“From an evolutionary perspective, anxiety can be seen as a detector that helps an individual to prepare for and deal with a dangerous situation [1, 2].”
From Adaptive function and correlates of anxiety during a pandemic (2021) · cites this paper as [2]
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Self-citation
Metadata
- Authors
- Bateson, M., Brilot, B., & Nettle, D.
- Affiliations
- Reader in Ethology, Newcastle University, Newcastle, England
- Newcastle University (GB)
- Venue
- The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2011-12
- Volume
- 56
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 707-715
- ISSN
- 0706-7437 (ISSN-L)
- 1497-0015
- OpenAlex
- W2107561257
- Cited by
- 228
- References
- 71
- Citations by year
- 2026: 17 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 19 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 0.87
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Locations
- The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PEARL (University of Plymouth) (submittedVersion)
- Newcastle University ePrints (Newcastle Univesity)
- Funders
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/E012000/1)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Keywords
- anxiety, evolutionary psychology, anxiety disorders, threat detection, signal detection theory, threat probability, animal models of anxiety
- MeSH terms
- Anxiety Disorders, Biological Evolution, Humans, Psychological Theory, Signal Detection, Psychological
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