The Relationships of Trait Anxiety, Audience Nonverbal Feedback, and Attributions to Public Speaking State Anxiety

This study investigated the relationships among trait anxiety, audience nonverbal feedback, attributions, and public speaking state anxiety. Fifty-nine (N = 59) undergraduate students randomly assigned to either a positive or negative condition of audience nonverbal feedback delivered an impromptu speech and completed a trait anxiety measure, state anxiety scale, and attributional questionnaire about audience nonverbal feedback. The results provided some support for a path model indicating that negative nonverbal feedback increased external attributions, which, in turn, increased state anxiety. Trait anxiety was not more predictive of state anxiety than nonverbal feedback.