Why Do You Have These Fears?
37HOW BELIEFS CONTRIBUTE TO  
SOCIAL ANXIETY
As discussed in chapters 1 and 6, people with elevated social anxiety tend to think about 
social situations in a more negative way than do those people who are less anxious. 
Anxiety-provoking thoughts, interpretations, and predictions can lead someone to feel 
fear and anxiety in social situations.
There are numerous studies investigating the role of thinking in social anxiety. There 
is also evidence that helping people to change their anxious beliefs is an effective way 
of decreasing their social anxiety. Research on thinking and social anxiety is reviewed 
elsewhere (Antony and Swinson 2000; Hirsch and Clark 2004). Some of the highlights 
of this research include the following ﬁndings:
UÊPeople who experience high social anxiety rate negative social events as 
more likely to occur and more costly (in terms of their consequences), in 
comparison with people who don’t have signiﬁcant social anxiety.
UÊThese people tend to interpret their own performance (such as during a 
conversation or a speech) more critically than do people who are lower in 
social anxiety.
UÊThey tend to overestimate the extent to which their physical symptoms 
(such as blushing) are visible to others.
UÊThey are more likely than less anxious people to assume that others will 
interpret their physical symptoms (shaking, sweating, and so on) as a sign 
of a serious problem with anxiety or some mental illness. In contrast, people 
who are not socially anxious are less concerned about others noticing their 
physical arousal symptoms. Instead, people without signiﬁcant social anxiety 
assume that others will interpret their physical symptoms as normal (perhaps