To avoid or not to avoid: impact of self-compassion on safety behaviors in social situations.

Background/objectives: Safety behaviors are commonly used to decrease anxiety in social settings but maintain anxiety. Self-compassion has been shown to reduce anxiety and rumination, but the impact on safety behaviors has not been examined. For the present studies, it was hypothesized that inducing self-compassion would lead to lower safety behaviors compared to controls.

Methods: In Study 1 (N = 390), participants with elevated social anxiety recalled a distressing social situation, were randomly assigned to a self-compassionate (n = 186) or control (n = 204) writing exercise, and then reported predicted self-compassion and safety behaviors for a future situation. In Study 2 (N = 114), the impact of self-compassionate (n = 56) or control writing (n = 58) on safety behaviors was investigated during a Zoom interaction.

Results/conclusions: In Study 1, as hypothesized, the self-compassion condition reported fewer expected avoidance behaviors compared to controls. In Study 2, state self-compassion and safety behaviors did not differ between conditions. In both studies, distress significantly mediated the relationship between condition and safety behaviors, such that the self-compassion condition reported significantly lower distress, which was associated with lower safety behaviors. Future research can examine whether reduced distress and safety behaviors allow for greater social connection.