High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! In humans, shyness (also called diffidence) is a social psychology term used to describe the feeling of apprehension, lack of confidence, or awkwardness experienced when a person is in proximity to, approaching, or being approached by other people, especially in new situations or with unfamiliar people. Shyness may come from personality introversion, genetic traits, or the environment in which a person is raised. In biology, shy generally means "tends to avoid human beings"; See crypsis. Shyness in gorillas manifests with ostensibly similar behavioral traits, but differs wholly from humans in cognition and motivation.