Judging others makes me forget: Assessing the cognitive, behavioural, and emotional consequences of other-evaluations on self-evaluations for social anxiety

Background and objectives: People with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) evaluate themselves negatively before, during, and after anxiety-provoking social situations, which leads to negative consequences (e.g., performance deficits, memory impairments, and post-event processing). Despite decades of research, little is known regarding whether these evaluations generalize to how they view others. Social projection theory-the belief that others are similar to oneself-might further extend the basic Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) model. Our aim was to understand whether the degree to which people negatively evaluate a visibly anxious person causes them to negatively evaluate themselves.

Methods: 172 unselected participants completed several baseline questionnaires. We then randomly assigned participants to provide high-, medium-, or no-evaluation of a videotaped anxious person (i.e., other-evaluations) while we assessed their state anxiety. After, they evaluated the anxious person on multiple criteria. Participants then participated in an impromptu conversation task and subsequently evaluated their own performance.

Results: Although our manipulation was effective, we found no emotional or behavioural differences between conditions. However, people in the high-evaluation condition recalled significantly fewer facts about their conversation partner than did people in the medium- and no-evaluation conditions.

Limitations: After data cleaning, the sample size was slightly smaller than planned; most analyses were nonetheless appropriately powered. Our findings may not generalize beyond unselected undergraduate students; replication in a clinical sample is warranted.

Conclusions: These findings highlight the cognitive consequences (i.e., memory impairments) of other-evaluations, which cognitive behavioural therapists should consider when treating individuals with SAD.