It would be easy to speculate that these two visitors to the social hour
probably fall on opposite ends of the personality trait we call social anxiety.
The man was very anxious in this situation and behaved in a manner most
people would identify as shy. I would guess that the woman has never suf-
fered from shyness. Although most people would probably consider the wo-
man’s behavior normal and appropriate for a social gathering, researchers
find that the shy man ’s experience may be more common than most of us re-
alize. In fact, shyness appears to be a widespread social problem. Researchersconsistently find about 40% of the people they survey identify themselves asshy (Zimbardo, 1986). Another 40% to 50% say they have been shy before
or are shy in certain situations. This leaves only a small percentage of people
who do not know the pain of social anxiety or shyness.
Social anxiety is anxiety related specifically to social interactions or antici-
pated social interactions. People suffering from social anxiety experience many
of the usual anxiety symptoms: increased physiological arousal, inability to
concentrate, feelings of nervousness. But socially anxious people recognize that
the source of their discomfort is the social encounter they are now or will soon
be engaged in. Although everyone has on occasion been at least a little nervous
about an upcoming interview or date, we can identify a relatively stable ten-
dency for people to experience social anxiety. That is, each of us can be placed
along a continuum for how much social anxiety we typically experience.
Social anxiety is the same as or related to many other constructs investi-
gated by psychologists. The names for these concepts include shyness, datinganxiety, communication anxiety, reticence, and stage fright. Although some
psychologists draw a distinction between social anxiety and some of these
Speaking in front of a group creates high levels of nervousness for someone high in
social anxiety. High social-anxiety people are often concerned about negative evaluation.Social Anxiety 199