SOCIAL ANXIETY IN RELATION TO SELF-CONTROL DEPLETION FOLLOWING SOCIAL INTERACTIONS

Although prior research suggests that high social anxiety is associated with poor self-control during and after social interactions, only a few studies have formally tested this relationship. The current research therefore includes three studies examining how social anxiety is related to self-control. Study 1 showed that social anxiety is negatively related to general trait self-control. Studies 2 and 3 showed that higher social anxiety is related to poorer behavioral self-control after two types of social interactions, social evaluation and working with another person on a task. These results demonstrate that higher social anxiety is indeed related to decrements in self-control following social interaction. This suggests that socially anxious individuals are at risk of exhibiting poor self-control during and/or after social interactions, which has many negative implications, including poor interpersonal relationships and an exacerbation of social anxiety symptoms.