In short, people high in social anxiety expect their social interactions to
go poorly and look for evidence that the other person is rejecting them.
Unfortunately, this pessimism may cause the social rejection that the socially
anxious person fears in the first place. People sometimes mistake shyness for
a lack of interest or a lack of intelligence (Paulhus & Morgan, 1997).
Moreover, because they feel the other person dislikes them, socially anxious
people may cut conversations short or avoid them altogether. As a result,
they may nip pleasant interactions and potential friendships in the bud beforethey have a chance to bloom.
Explaining Social Anxiety
Why do shy people become so anxious in social situations? What are they
afraid of? Many researchers believe evaluation apprehension is the underlying
cause of social anxiety. In other words, socially anxious people are afraid of
what other people think of them (Baldwin & Main, 2001; Leary & Kowalski,
1995). In particular, they fear negative evaluation. Socially anxious people
worry that the person they are talking with is going to find them foolish, bor-ing, or immature. Situations that lend themselves to evaluation by others are
particularly anxiety provoking. Just thinking about going on a blind date, giv-
ing a speech in front of a large audience, or meeting people for the first timecan be a nightmarish experience for someone high in social anxiety.
How do socially anxious people deal with their fear of negative evalua-
tion? Often, they simply avoid social encounters altogether. They skip partieswhere they might not know anyone, avoid blind dates, and opt for a term
paper instead of a class presentation. When getting out of the situation is not
realistic, shy people will do what they can to reduce the amount of social in-
teraction. One way they do this is by avoiding eye contact (Farabee, Holcom,
Ramsey, & Cole, 1993; Garcia, Stinson, Ickes, Bissonnette, & Briggs, 1991).
Making eye contact with someone signals a readiness or willingness to talk.
By refusing to give this signal, shy people tell those around them that they
would prefer to avoid social interaction. In this way, socially anxious people
limit the opportunities for others to evaluate them.
When their efforts to avoid potentially awkward social situations fail, shy
people do what they can to keep the conversation short and nonthreatening.Participants in one experiment were asked to tell four stories about them-
selves to an interviewer (DePaulo, Epstein, & LeMay, 1990). Some of the
participants believed the interviewer would use these stories to evaluate them
afterward. The socially anxious people who thought they were going to be
evaluated told shorter and less revealing stories than the other participants.
Apparently these shy people were worried about creating a poor impression
in the mind of the interviewer.
Participants in another experiment were asked to engage in a 5-minute
“get-acquainted ”conversation with someone they had just met (Leary,
Knight, & Johnson, 1987). When researchers examined tapes of these conver-sations, they found several differences in the way shy and nonshy participants
acted. Socially anxious participants were more likely to agree with what the
other person said and to merely restate or clarify their partner ’s remarks202 CHAPTER 8 The Trait Approach