when it was their turn to talk. This interactive style allows socially anxious
people to create an image of politeness and interest without becoming tooinvolved in the conversation. In this way, shy people hope to minimize the
amount of evaluation by their conversation partners and, in particular, to
reduce the chances that this other person will find something objectionable
about them. This concern about evaluation also explains why socially anx-
ious people limit the amount of personal information they reveal to a person
they’ve just met (Meleshko & Alden, 1993).
Not surprisingly, we find higher rates of shyness in cultures that empha-
size concern for what others think of you and the importance of avoidingcriticism (Okazaki, 1997). Recall from Chapter 1 that people from collectivistcultures are more concerned about fitting in with their community and cul-
ture, whereas people from individualistic cultures are more interested in
drawing attention to themselves. Consistent with these differences, researcherstypically find more shyness in collectivist cultures than in individualistic cul-
tures (Heinrichs et al., 2005; Paulhus, Duncan, & Yik, 2002).
In short, the shy person’ s interaction style is a type of self-protective strat-
egy. Because they are so concerned with negative evaluations, socially anxiouspeople do what they can to control the impressions others have of them
(Schlenker & Leary, 1982; Shepperd & Arkin, 1990). Shy people deliberately
keep conversations short and pleasant and avoid potentially controversial or
embarrassing topics. In this way, they reduce the likelihood that the other
person will form a negative impression of them.
Although this picture of the shy person may sound rather hopeless, one
research finding suggests that socially anxious people may not be as inca-pable of conversation as they seem. R esearchers sometimes find that shy
people have little difficulty interacting with others once they get started.
That is, for at least some shy people, it ’sinitiating a conversation that
seems to be the real stumbling block (Curran, Wallander, & Fischetti,
1980; Paulhus & Martin, 1987). In one study, shy and nonshy participantswere left alone to carry on a conversation with a member of the opposite
sex (Pilkonis, 1977b). Although the nonshy people spoke more often andwere more likely to break periods of silence than the shy participants, there
was no difference in how long these two kinds of people spoke when they
did say something.
Observations like these lead some researchers to speculate that what
socially anxious people really lack is confidence in their ability to make agood impression (Hill, 1989; Leary & Atherton, 1986; Maddux, Norton, &Leary, 1988). Fear that they might say the wrong thing often keeps shy peo-
ple from saying anything. Consequently, therapy programs designed to help
people overcome problems with shyness often focus on developing the cli-ents’belief that they are capable of saying the right thing and of making a
good impression (Glass & Shea, 1986; Haemmerlie & Montgomery, 1986;Leary & Kowalski, 1995). Shy people who lack social skills can be taughthow to carry on a conversation, but for many, the key may be developing
confidence that social encounters will be more successful than most shy peo-
ple now expect.Social Anxiety 203