The socially anxious perspective in face-to-face interaction: an experimental comparison

We argue that social psychological and evolution theories can be combined to produce an adequate theory of social anxiety. From this combination we predict that the socially anxious utilize competitive schemata in social interaction whereas non-anxious people utilize cooperative schemata, with consequent differential effects on cognitions and emotions. These predictions were evaluated in an experiment in which two groups of students—12 high and 12 low scorers on the Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale—engaged in a semi-naturalistic, mildly stressful interaction, after which they were asked to reconstruct their thoughts and feelings at points of ‘discomfort’ using video-aided recall. Anxious students evaluated themselves as subordinate, the confederate as dominant, thought he should take the lead, and blamed themselves for disruption in the conversation and experienced embarrassment. Non-anxious students in contrast evaluated themselves as more dominant than the confederate, thought the conversation should have been more reciprocal, and tended to blame the confederate for disruptions. The results were interpreted as providing qualified and preliminary support for the theory. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.