Individuals with scopophobia generally exhibit symptoms in social situations when attention is brought upon them, such as in public speaking.
Other triggers may also cause social anxiety, such as: being introduced to new people, being teased and/or criticized, or even answering a phone call in public.
Specific phobias and syndromes that are similar to scopophobia include erythrophobia (the fear of blushing, which is found especially in young people).
[7] Sociologist Erving Goffman suggested that shying away from casual glances in the street remained one of the characteristic symptoms of psychosis in public.
[2] Building on Sigmund Freud's concept of the eye as an erogenous zone,[10] psychoanalysts have linked scopophobia to a (repressed) fear of looking,[11] as well as to an inhibition of exhibitionism.
"[13] In some explanations, the equation of being looked at with a feeling of being criticized or despised reveals shame as a motivating force behind scopophobia.
[14] In the self-consciousness of adolescence, with its increasing awareness of the Other as constitutive of the looking-glass self, shame may exacerbate feelings of erythrophobia and scopophobia.
He used this term to describe patients of his who exhibited a fear of being observed as they were participating in daily activities such as talking, playing the piano or writing.
[20] The term scopophobia comes from the Greek σκοπέω skopeō, "look to, examine",[21] and φόβος phobos, "fear".
[23] Another, lesser known, term for this disorder is spotligectophobia, a humorous blend of the spotlight effect and the combining form -phobia meaning fear.