Heritability of social anxiety: a brief review

Although recent advances have greatly improved the treatment of and prognosis for social phobia, its etiology remains relatively unexplored. One promising area of investigation is the role of intergenerational transmission. This paper provides an overview of twin and family studies of social anxiety, specifically focusing on questions of evidence for heritability, relative contributions of genetic versus environmental factors, and the implications of variations in diagnostic definitions, e.g., social phobia versus shyness.