Social interactions leading to dominance hierarchies often elicit psychological disorders in mammals including harassment and anxiety. Here, we demonstrate that this sequence also occurs in an invertebrate, the crayfish Procambarus clarkii. Contrary to winners, losers expressed anxiety-like behaviour (ALB) in correlation with the stress intensity they suffered during the harassment period following loser’s decision to retreat. 5-HT concentrations increased much more in losers than in winners, and mainly during harassment. Injections of an anxiolytic abolished ALB, confirming its homology with anxiety. A serotonin (5-HT) antagonist had the same effect. Our findings suggest that the bases of harassment and of its anxiogenic consequences have emerged very early during evolution, and emphasize crayfish as an unexpected but potentially fruitful model for the study of these social disorders.