Appearing Socially Competent: The Effects of a Friend's Presence on the Socially Anxious

Abstract

As hypothesized, while introducing themselves to another person via video, participants high in social anxiety appeared more socially competent with a friend present than when alone. We also examined three potential explanations for this effect and found that while sharing information about themselves on video, most participants high in social anxiety were verbally prompted by their friends. Furthermore, on an open ended question, participants high in social anxiety expressed less negative self-focused thoughts with a friend present than when alone, but friends' presence did not affect their self-reports of anxiety. As predicted, the presence of friends had no effect on social performance or anxiety for participants low in social anxiety. Although more research is needed to ascertain how being with a friend versus alone results in better social performance for people high in social anxiety, friends' support may be part of a repertoire of "safe" social interaction strategies.