Social Anxiety and Its Effects on Performance and Perception

Abstract

This study examined whether the socially anxious show deficits in performance on a social task as well as how their anxiety and competence relate to judgments they make about themselves and others. Ratings from a panel of judges were used to compare men of high and low social anxiety on their performances in a simulated job interview. Participants also viewed videotapes of themselves and others and rated responses for content, fluency, nonverbal, and global competence. Contradicting predictions of a performance deficit model, high levels of social anxiety had no detrimental effect on participants' performance or on their ability to judge their own performance. In contrast, observer-rated competence was related to a number of significant effects for social judgment tasks. Implications for treatment of social anxiety and research on social anxiety are discussed.