To focus on a confederate or oneself? Attentional bias and state anxiety in socially anxious individuals during real-time online video calls

Abstract

Attentional bias toward threatening stimuli and heightened self-focused attention are pivotal factors in the activation and perpetuation of high social anxiety. Literature on attentional biases between external social cues and self-relevant information has yielded inconsistent findings due to diverse experimental tasks and materials. With a videoconferencing platform and eye-tracking technology, this study assessed state anxiety and attentional bias between self- and other-related cues among individuals with different sex and social anxiety levels (n = 82) in various social contexts (speech and conversation) and social feedback (positive, neutral, and negative). Eye-movement data revealed that individuals focus more on the other person than themselves during online video interactions. However, individuals with high social anxiety tend to focus more on themselves and less on others compared to those with low social anxiety, particularly in males. Males with high social anxiety distributed their attention equally between their social partners and themselves, while females with high social anxiety did not. Self-reported data indicated higher anxiety during speeches than conversations. Those with high social anxiety showed significant differences from baseline levels during tasks, in contrast to those with low social anxiety. Subjective anxiety was more pronounced for negative feedback than for neutral or positive feedback, especially in females. These findings enhance understanding of attentional biases in individuals with high social anxiety and suggest that videoconferencing could benefit therapy for individuals with social anxiety disorder.