This study explores the associations between shame, depression and social anxiety from the perspective of social rank theory (Price and Sloman, 1987; Gilbert, 1989, 1992). Social rank theory argues that emotions and moods are significantly influenced by the perceptions of one’s social status/rank; that is the degree to which one feels inferior to others and looked down on. A common outcome of s...

Variation in the social environment is a fundamental component of many vertebrate societies. In humans and other primates, adverse social environments often translate into lasting physiological costs. The biological mechanisms associated with these effects are therefore of great interest, both for understanding the evolutionary impacts of social behavior and in the context of human health. Howe...

Background: This paper presents a new psychological model of why low income increases risk of mental distress. Consistent with evolutionary perspectives on disorder, income was predicted to relate to mental distress only through acting as an indirect proxy for social rank. Methods: Participants were part of a longitudinal cohort sample of 30,000 people who were representative of the British pop...

In the target article, Kraus, Tan, and Tannenbaum identify a key feature of the psychological experience of social class—perception of one’s rank vis-à-vis others. This rank-based perspective, which reveals the systematic influence of rank on psychological functioning, makes an important contribution to current and future theories of social class. Drawing out the significance of rank brings soc...

This study examined the effects of social housing manipulations on bodyweight, corticosterone levels, and performance of T-maze alternation in male CD-1 mice. Males that adopted a dominant social rank were heavier than those that adopted a subordinate social rank. Dominant males also had lower corticosterone concentrations than the subordinates. However, there was little to suggest that these p...

BACKGROUND Chronic stress may conceivably require plasticity of maternal physiology and behavior to cope with the conflicting primary demands of infant rearing and foraging for food. In addition, social rank may play a pivotal role in mandating divergent homeostatic adaptations in cohesive social groups. We examined cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) oxytocin (OT) levels and hypothalamic-pituitary adren...