Abstract
BackgroundIn face-to-face (offline) social situations a tendency, or bias, to negatively interpret ambiguous situations is consistently related to social anxiety. Although social interactions increasingly occur over the Internet (online), our understanding of cognitive processes in online social situations and how they relate to social anxiety, social experiences, and behavior, is limited.MethodsIn a sample of 324 young people (18–25 years), the current study addressed this gap in two ways: by simultaneously investigating online and offline interpretation bias in relation to social anxiety; and examining the extent to which online interpretation bias predicts peer victimization and avoidance.ResultsIn line with hypotheses, online and offline interpretation bias each correlated positively with social anxiety; the offline interpretation bias-social anxiety association was stronger. Regression analyses revealed unique associations between online interpretation bias and online peer victimization and avoidance, after controlling for social anxiety and offline interpretation bias.DiscussionFindings suggest that cognitive behavioral interventions for social anxiety could be optimized through eliciting and testing negative social beliefs related to online social settings.ConclusionsThe current study’s results indicate the importance of studying online interpretation bias to further understand social anxiety in online social environments.
Highlights
In face-to-face social situations a tendency, or bias, to negatively interpret ambiguous situations is consistently related to social anxiety
We tested three research questions: (a) How is an online interpretation bias related to social anxiety and does it contribute unique variance in social anxiety over and above that of an offline interpretation bias?; (b) Does an online interpretation bias uniquely contribute to peer victimization and avoidance in the online context, over and above social anxiety?; and (c) Does an offline interpretation bias uniquely contribute to peer victimization and avoidance behavior in an offline context, over and above social anxiety? In addition, we explored the role of interpretation bias as an explanatory, or mediating, variable in the relationships between social anxiety and peer victimization and avoidance behavior, in both online and offline social environments
The analysis showed that offline interpretation bias is a unique predictor of social anxiety, adding a significant 39% explained variance to the 9% explained by the covariates sex and age
Summary
In face-to-face (offline) social situations a tendency, or bias, to negatively interpret ambiguous situations is consistently related to social anxiety. Social interactions increasingly occur over the Internet (online), our understanding of cognitive processes in online social situations and how they relate to social anxiety, social experiences, and behavior, is limited. Methods In a sample of 324 young people (18–25 years), the current study addressed this gap in two ways: by simultaneously investigating online and offline interpretation bias in relation to social anxiety; and examining the extent to which online interpretation bias predicts peer victimization and avoidance. Regression analyses revealed unique associations between online interpretation bias and online peer victimization and avoidance, after controlling for social anxiety and offline interpretation bias. Conclusions The current study’s results indicate the importance of studying online interpretation bias to further understand social anxiety in online social environments
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