New research published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin This suggests that changing the way people think about first impressions may reduce the burden of social anxiety. This finding indicates that when people believe that others form stable and unchanging opinions, social interactions tend to feel less demanding. This shift in perspective provides evidence that socially anxious people feel more secure simply by assuming that they are not constantly being reevaluated.
“Social anxiety is a common problem that chronically affects the lives of 5-15% of the population, and most people are affected from time to time (such as during a job interview or on a date). Social anxiety can make people feel very uncomfortable or avoid social situations, which can severely limit their ability to live life to their fullest potential,” said study author Riad Uziel, associate professor at Bar-Ilan University.
“There are a variety of approaches to dealing with social anxiety, which may require medication or long-term treatment. Much of the recent research on this topic has focused on the cognitive biases (such as excessive self-criticism) that characterize people with high social anxiety and exacerbate the disorder. In this study, we sought to address these cognitive mechanisms and test whether relatively simple changes in mindset can alleviate the manifestations of social anxiety.”
Mindsets are basic beliefs about human nature. A growth mindset is the belief that traits can change and develop over time. A fixed mindset is the belief that characteristics are relatively stable and cannot be changed. Researchers wanted to know whether it would be beneficial to change the way people think about the outside world, especially how they form impressions of other people.
To test this, Uziel conducted a series of four related studies. The pilot study involved 182 UK adults who completed an online survey. Participants answered questions regarding their baseline level of social anxiety.
They also reported their natural beliefs about whether first impressions are permanent or changeable. Finally, participants rated how mentally exhausting the process of managing their public image was.
Researchers have found that social anxiety is strongly associated with being exhausted by social interactions. However, for those who originally had a fixed mindset about impressions, this feeling of fatigue was alleviated.
Following this initial study, Uziel designed three experiments to actively change the way people think about impression formation. The first experiment recruited 200 Israeli university students. Uziel randomly assigned students to either a fixed mindset group or a growth mindset group. To manipulate their thinking, the researchers had participants read and agree with statements that were heavily biased toward one of two beliefs.
“In our intervention, we asked participants to adopt a fixed impression mindset, in which the impressions people make are relatively stable and do not change easily,” Uziel explained. “In doing so, this intervention sought to reduce the cognitive load that people with social anxiety experience in social situations. If impressions are not easily changed, there is less risk that something someone does during the interaction will influence their impressions.”
“People with high social anxiety tend to ruminate and overanalyze other people’s reactions to them, often misinterpreting these reactions as negative signs (increased distress), so they feel overwhelmed by social interactions and have a hard time responding adaptively.”
Next, students wrote a short introduction that they believed they would soon share with their partner. Two independent judges assessed these written introductions for friendliness, control, and signs of anxiety.
Uziel found that students with high levels of social anxiety performed poorly when instilled with a growth mindset. However, when socially anxious students were exposed to stereotypes, they performed just as well as low-anxiety students. Believing that our impressions are stable seems to protect us from the negative effects of our own worries.
The second experiment tested 155 Israeli university students in a more stressful environment. Participants received the same mindset manipulation as the previous group. The researchers then asked the participants to mirror themselves into a video camera for two consecutive minutes. Being recorded usually triggers a strong stress response in people who are socially anxious. Two objective raters watched the videos and scored participants on eye contact, voice clarity, visual comfort, and conversational flow.
Once again, social anxiety predicted poorer performance only for the growth mindset group. People who were led to believe that impressions were fixed were able to present themselves in a more positive light. This provided evidence that a fixed mindset acts as a psychological buffer during stressful social tasks.
Uziel then left the lab to see if these effects apply to everyday life. The third experiment involved 158 Israeli university students. Uziel used the same mindset operations, but added free-form writing tasks to help the new mindset stick more deeply.
Participants wrote about personal memories proving that impressions can be fixed or change depending on the group to which they are assigned. Three days later, the researchers contacted the students and asked them about their recent real-world social interactions. Participants rated how stressful, satisfying, and positive their conversations were during that period.
Socially anxious individuals in the growth mindset group reported having worse social experiences than usual. On the other hand, socially anxious students in the stereotype group reported better and more satisfying social interactions. Adopting the belief that impressions are stable has made life easier for me. They felt less pressured and more connected to the people around them.
“It was surprising that both socially anxious individuals and objective observers noticed improvements in social behavior,” Uziel told SciPost. “While people feel better, there is often little change in behavior that can actually be observed.”
“Furthermore, most research on mindsets suggests that a growth mindset is better in a variety of situations (for example, believing that intelligence is malleable). Our findings are surprising because they show that there are situations in which stability is better.”
Although these findings provide a promising psychological tool, they also have some limitations. The experiment focused on natural variation in social anxiety within the general population. Scientists did not test people formally diagnosed with severe social anxiety disorder. Clinical patients may respond differently to mindset exercises than the average college student.
Additionally, laboratory tasks measured very brief snapshots of social behavior. It remains unclear how long the effects of simple mindset practices actually last in the real world.
“Additional work is needed to test these ideas in new samples and in different cultures,” Uziel says. “Additionally, it would be interesting to study this study specifically in people with clinically diagnosed social anxiety. Additionally, long-term effects need to be tested.”
The study, “The Healing Effects of a Stable World: Individual Social Behavior Changes in Response to Social Anxiety Under Fixed and Growth Mindsets of Impression Formation,” was authored by Riad Uziel.
