Changing Your Anxious Thoughts and Expectations
111and about what other people are thinking of them. This section includes descriptions 
of some of the most common styles of thinking that often seem to play a role in social 
and performance anxiety. Note that there are additional examples of negative and exag -
gerated thinking that other authors have highlighted (see, for example, Burns 1999) that 
we have chosen not to include in this section. In most cases, these were omitted either 
because they were not especially relevant to social anxiety or because they were very 
similar and overlapped considerably with those examples that we have included. In fact, 
even the various thinking styles on this list overlap to some extent. As you may notice, a 
particular anxious thought (something like, “Other people will think that I am boring”) 
may easily ﬁt into more than one category (probability overestimation, mind reading).
Probability Overestimations
A probability overestimation is a prediction that a person believes is likely to come true, 
even though the actual likelihood is relatively low. For example, someone who is fearful of 
giving presentations might predict that the next presentation is likely to go poorly, even 
though her presentations usually go well. Similarly, a person who is nervous about dating 
might assume that other people will ﬁnd him unattractive, even though many people 
have found him to be attractive in the past. If your thoughts are similar to those listed 
below, you may have a tendency to overestimate the likelihood of negative events.
Examples of Probability Overestimations
UÊI will be overwhelmed with panic.
UÊEveryone at the party will think I’m stupid.
UÊMy presentation will be a disaster.
UÊI will never be in an intimate relationship again.