Survivor guilt, submissive behaviour and evolutionary theory: The down-side of winning in social comparison

In Drier research submissive behaviour has been studied in relation to soci al comparison, Evolutionary theory conceptualized submissive behaviour as a fear-based self-protective strategy when in a subordinate position. In thi s study we hypothesized that survivor guilt, the type of guilt associated w ith feeling better off than others, is also linked to submissive behaviour. The Interpersonal Guilt Questionnaire, the Submissive Behaviour Inventory, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised and the Automatic Thoughts Q uestionnaire were administered to a sample of 199 college students. Submiss ive behaviour was found to be significantly correlated with survivor guilt. Introversion, used as an indirect measure of the fear of being pur down, w as also correlated with submissive behaviour. A principal components analys is found two components: the first was composed of high loadings of submiss iveness, survivor guilt and omnipotent responsibility guilt; the second was composed of high loadings of submissiveness and introversion. This support s the hypothesis that there may be two motivational states related to submi ssive behaviour, the fear of harm to the self as described in prior studies , and the fear of harm to another or guilt-based submissive behaviour. We p ropose that survivor guilt has been selected by evolution as a psychologica l mechanism supporting group living, and that it may be considered from the perspective of inclusive fitness, reciprocal altruism, and multilevel sele ction cheery.