Final answer:
The evolutionary psychology perspective posits that anxiety resulting from social exclusion is an adaptive trait evolved to signal serious survival threats in our ancestral past, where being part of a group was crucial for survival (option b). Today, although threats are more psychological, the same fight or flight response can have detrimental health effects.
Step-by-step explanation:
According to the evolutionary psychology perspective, the process of social exclusion leads to anxiety because experiencing anxiety serves an important survival function. This perspective argues that in our ancestral environment, being part of a group was essential for survival, and social exclusion could have meant life-threatening consequences. The fight or flight response, a reaction to a perceived threat which would have helped our ancestors survive, is still part of our psychological makeup today.
Even though modern threats are more psychological in nature, our evolved response can result in health consequences like heart disease and impaired immune function when exposed to repeated and persistent stress. Social behaviors have been favored by natural selection because individuals who demonstrated such traits were more likely to survive and pass their genes on to their offspring.
Social hierarchies and the resulting stress from one's position within a group have been demonstrated to impact mental health and disease in both human and non-human primates, further adding to the evolutionary basis of anxiety associated with social exclusion.
Hence, the answer is option b.