Discomfort with Friendly Giving in Individuals with Social Anxiety Disorder

Abstract

Prior research focusing on social anxiety and impairment in friendships has explored the role of specific behaviors within friendships, such as receiving favors from a friend, in its relation to social anxiety symptoms and friendship quality. In a prior study, we examined three types of reactions to favors (negative reactions to favors, positive reactions to favors, and expectation of tit-for-tat behavior) and explored how these reactions relate to social anxiety, which resulted in the creation of the Favor Scale, a measure of an individual’s response to friendly giving. In the current study, we explore the psychometric properties of the Favor Scale in a sample of individuals with generalized social anxiety disorder (GSAD) and a sample of healthy controls (NOSAD). Results largely replicated the three-factor structure of the Favor Scale (with the removal of a single item in the GSAD group) and findings suggested both tit-for-tat behavior and negative reactions to favors are elevated in GSAD individuals compared to NOSAD individuals.