Social Anxiety (SA) has been shown to be associated with compensatory deficits in pro-social behavior following exclusion and with failure to capitalize on social success. We assessed the subjective and expressive responses of high (n = 48) and low (n = 56) socially anxious individuals to exclusion, acceptance, and popularity induced by a participation in an online ball-tossing game. Before the manipulation, participants read aloud neutral and command utterances. Following the manipulation, participants rated their mood and cognitions and re-read the utterances. Acoustic properties (fundamental frequency–mF0, vocal intensity) of these utterances were analyzed. We found greater differences in self-esteem between high and low socially anxious individuals following the exclusion condition, as compared to the acceptance condition. Among low socially anxious individuals, exclusion promoted increased vocal confidence, as indicated by decreased mF0 and increased vocal intensity in uttering commands; High socially anxious individuals exhibited an opposite reaction, responding to exclusion by decreased vocal confidence. Following popularity, high SA was associated with decreased enhancement in mood and self-esteem in women but not in men. Consistent with evolutionary and interpersonal accounts of SA, we highlight the importance of examining the effects of SA and gender on events indicating unambiguous and unanimous social acceptance. Examining reactivity to changes in belongingness may have important implications for understanding the core mechanisms of SA.

We examined middle-class Israeli preschoolers' cognitive self-transformation in the delay of gratification paradigm. In Study 1, 66 un-caped or Superman-caped preschoolers delayed gratification, half with instructions regarding Superman's delay-relevant qualities. Caped children delayed longer, especially when instructed regarding Superman's qualities. In Study 2 with 43 preschoolers, with the respective relevant superhero qualities emphasized (i.e., patient vs. impulsive), Superman-caped children tended to delay longer than Dash-caped children. In Study 3, 48 preschoolers delayed gratification after being instructed to pretend to be Superman or a child with the same patient qualities, or after watching a video of Superman, with or without pretend instructions. Invoking Superman led to longer delays and instructions regarding Superman's qualities tended to lead to longer delays than watching the Superman video. In accounting for the data, we differentiated cognitive transformations of the reward's consummatory value and cognitive transformations as basic intellectual processes.

Social anxiety (SA) has been consistently linked to subjectively rated perceptions of nonconfident vocal communication, yet the link between SA and objective vocal properties remains understudied. the present study aimed to explore the association between SA and auditory parameters of planned speech differing in expressive intent. Participants (n = 95) read neutral, command, and request sentences. Acoustic properties (fundamental frequency-mF0, intensity, speech rate, speech fluency) of these utterances were analyzed. Consistent with a pattern of nonconfident vocal performance, SA was associated with a higher mF0 in men and women, and lesser vocal intensity in men. Moreover, as compared to neutral sentences, SA was associated with lesser increase of vocal intensity in command utterances, and greater decrease of vocal intensity in request utterances. in men, but not in women, SA was also associated with slower speech rate in request sentences. Socially anxious men, and to a lesser degree, socially anxious women, appear to exhibit an enhanced use of vocal strategies associated with de-escalation of conflict. the importance of examining the production of nonverbal cues of dominance and affiliation in SA is highlighted.