Background and objectives

These days, a growing number of social interactions occur through video-mediated communication (VMC). However, little is known about how socially anxious individuals use this technology. Here, we examined the visual attention patterns of high and low socially anxious individuals during a live interaction with a study confederate using a typical online VMC setup.

Methods

High (n = 30) and low (n = 30) socially anxious participants completed a VMC-based social interaction task comprised of two parts: A one-on-one acquaintance interview followed by a one-on-one short presentation assignment. State anxiety was measured before and after the task, and gaze data was collected throughout.

Results

High socially anxious participants experienced elevated anxiety following the interaction task, whereas no elevation was observed for low socially anxious participants. Gaze data revealed that high socially anxious participants dwelled longer on the confederate's image during the acquaintance interview compared with the presentation task, and dwelled longer on non-face areas during the presentation relative to during the acquaintance interview. This task-related gaze pattern was not observed among low socially anxious participants.

Limitations

An analog sample was used in this study and future research should replicate its findings in a clinical sample. Future studies may also wish to counterbalance confederate's gender and task order across participants.

Conclusions

The results suggest that during VMC, socially anxious individuals observe their environment differently than non-socially anxious individuals, depending on the context of the interaction. This context-dependency might help explain mixed findings in previous studies. Further theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

中文翻译：

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社交焦虑个体在线视频介导交互过程中的视觉注意模式。

背景和目标

如今，越来越多的社交互动是通过视频媒介通信 (VMC) 进行的。然而，人们对社交焦虑的人如何使用这项技术知之甚少。在这里，我们使用典型的在线 VMC 设置，在与研究同盟的实时互动中检查了高和低社交焦虑个体的视觉注意力模式。

方法

高 (n = 30) 和低 (n = 30) 社交焦虑的参与者完成了基于 VMC 的社交互动任务，该任务由两部分组成：一对一熟人访谈，然后是一对一的简短演示任务。在任务前后测量状态焦虑，并在整个过程中收集凝视数据。

结果

高度社交焦虑的参与者在交互任务后经历了更高的焦虑，而低社交焦虑的参与者没有观察到升高。凝视数据显示，与熟人访谈相比，高社交焦虑的参与者在熟人访谈期间对同盟形象的停留时间比在介绍任务中更长，并且在介绍期间在非面部区域停留的时间比熟人访谈期间更长。在低社交焦虑的参与者中没有观察到这种与任务相关的凝视模式。

限制

本研究中使用了模拟样本，未来的研究应在临床样本中复制其发现。未来的研究还可能希望在参与者之间平衡同盟的性别和任务顺序。

结论

结果表明，在 VMC 期间，社交焦虑的个体与非社交焦虑的个体观察环境的方式不同，这取决于互动的背景。这种上下文依赖性可能有助于解释先前研究中的混合发现。讨论了这些发现的进一步理论意义。