The Right Fit: When Socially Anxious Individuals Gain the Most From Social Interactions
Aurelio Fernández et al.
What the paper says
Social interactions are crucial for social connection and well-being, yet individuals differ in how much they benefit from them. This two-week experience sampling study ( N = 157; 10,547 social interactions) explored how trait social anxiety shapes interaction quality (i.e., pleasantness, playfulness, and meaningfulness) and momentary energy. We also examined the moderating roles of interaction channel (face-to-face vs. mediated), group size (large vs. small), and familiarity (familiar vs. unfamiliar). Dimensions of interaction quality were robustly positively associated with increased momentary energy at both the within- and between-person levels. Social anxiety was negatively related to energy. For interaction quality, the social context mattered: the negative effect of social anxiety on playfulness was attenuated in small (vs. large) group interactions, and the negative effect on meaningfulness was weaker in mediated (vs. face-to-face) interactions. The findings suggest that more controllable and close-knit social contexts better align with the psychological needs of socially anxious individuals.
Evidence weight
Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40
| F · citation impact | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
| M · momentum | 0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07 |
| V · venue signal | 0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03 |
| R · text relevance † | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.