This study investigated whether high socially anxious individuals interpret other people's ambiguous behavior in a more negative or threatening manner in comparison to low socially anxious individuals, after controlling for the effects of depression. High and low socially anxious participants (N = 31) gave a speech. During the speech, a confederate performed ambiguous behaviors. After the speech, participants were asked to answer questions about their interpretation of the confederate's behaviors using open-ended questions and rating scales. The results showed that the high socially anxious participants interpreted the confederate's ambiguous behavior in a more negative and threatening manner as measured by the rating scales, and in a less neutral manner as measured by the open-ended responses in comparison to the low socially anxious participants. After controlling for the effects of depression, the effects of social anxiety on the threat rating score remained significant. These results suggest that social anxiety is partially related to threatening interpretations of other's ambiguous behaviors.

Social anxiety is characterized by an excessive fear of being embarrassed in social interactions or social performance situations. Emotional support can help to decrease or diminish social distress. Such support may play an important role at different points of social interaction. However, it is unclear how the beneficial effects of social support are represented in the brains of socially anxious individuals. To explore this, we used the same paradigm previously used to examine the effects of emotional support on social pain caused by exclusion. Undergraduates (n = 46) showing a wide range of social anxiety scores underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while participating in a Cyberball game. Participants were initially included and later excluded from the game. In the latter half of the session in which participants were excluded, they were provided with supportive messages. In line with our previous work, we found that social exclusion led to increased anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) activity, whereas emotional support led to increased left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activity. Despite validation of the paradigm, social anxiety was not associated with increased ACC activity during social exclusion, or during perceived emotional support. Instead, fear of negative evaluation as assessed by the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation (BFNE) scale showed positive associations with left DLPFC activation while receiving emotional support, compared to while being socially excluded. The more socially anxious an individual was, the greater was the left DLPFC activity increased during receipt of messages. This suggests that highly socially anxious people still have the ability to perceive social support, but that they are nevertheless susceptible to negative evaluation by others.

Many studies have reported that behavioral activation is an effective intervention for depression. The behavioral activation model is based on several formulations. For example, depressive mood leads to avoidant behaviors, avoidance negatively affects social contacts, decreased socialization lessens opportunities for positive reinforcement, and a decrease in positive reinforcement results in more depressive mood. The purpose of this study was to examine relationships among avoidant behavior, social contact, frequency of positive reinforcement, and depressive mood by using structural equation modeling to assess support for aspects of this behavioral activation model. Participants were 630 Japanese undergraduate students and vocational school students. Results provided preliminary support for the model. Treating both avoidance and activating behavior might contribute to decreased impairment.

The effects of video feedback and nonnegative feedback from other people were examined as possibly ameliorating distorted appraisals of bodily sensations, as well as subjective and physiological anxiety in socially anxious individuals. Nonnegative feedback from a confederate emphasized the absence of negative outcomes (e.g., did not seem to tremble) rather than the presence of positive outcomes (e.g., looked calm). Socially anxious students were randomly assigned to either the experimental group, which received video and social feedback (n=12), or the control group (n 13). Participants were asked to give a videotaped speech twice. After the first speech, the experimental group watched the videotape of their speech and received feedback from a confederate, whereas the control group watched the video of another person's speech. The intervention improved distorted appraisal of bodily sensations and anticipatory anxiety for the experimental group. However, there were no differential effects on anxiety between the groups during speeches.

It is speculated that the SAD group have a stronger link between safety behaviour and negative belief than the healthy group, whereas frequency of the use of safety behaviour is equivalent between two groups. These results support the findings of previous studies.