Linking social stress, health and social behavior through the lens of evolution

Abstract

Stress has been systematically shown to affect health. Social life introduces additional sources of stress, and social stressors emerge as a particular kind of stressors. Living in groups and embedded into their social networks, humans live a complex life based on regular social interactions, elaborate cultural routines and mental life rooted in intersubjectivity, capacity for social learning and affiliative needs. Social Safety Theory and life history orientation approach use this ground to develop an evolutionary-based perspective on life stress and health. While life history orientation framework is already well established in social epidemiology, medical anthropology and sociology, Social Safety Theory is a novel approach building on the psychological ability embedded in human sociality to form and maintain lasting social bonds. It hypothesizes that threats to social safety are a critical feature of psychological stressors that increase risk for disease. By doing so it provides a link between social behavior, psychosocial stress and human health when considered in the light of evolution. Life history orientation approach stems from the evolutionary premises and expands its biologically-grounded reasoning into the realm of psychology as well as health sciences. Among other things, it contributes to sociological frameworks linking the effects of childhood adversity to patterns of disease and social behavior in adult life. Both these frameworks provide important conceptual junctures for the researchers of stress, health and social behavior by developing explanations of different avenues by which our social ecologies affect biological risks.