According to cognitive theories of social anxiety, fear of negative evaluation (FNE) may be the mechanism whereby social anxiety induces distress. However, studying this can be challenging, as individuals with social anxiety may be reluctant to enter anxiety-provoking social situations, such as speaking in front of others. The present study used virtual reality (VR) to examine if giving a presentation in front of a virtual audience induced distress among undergraduate students and to test the hypothesis that FNE would mediate the relationship between social anxiety and distress. University students (N = 58, 70% female) entered a VR environment where they stood in front of a virtual audience and gave a short, impromptu presentation about their university. Participants also completed self-report measures of social anxiety, FNE, and distress (estimated before, during, and after VR). Distress and FNE had positive relationships with social anxiety and FNE fully mediated the relationship between social anxiety and distress. As far as we are aware, this is the first VR study to show this effect. The findings indicate that FNE could be a useful treatment target to reduce distress when presenting in front of an audience, either in VR or in person.

中文翻译：

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虚拟现实环境中的社交焦虑、害怕负面评价和痛苦

根据社交焦虑的认知理论，对负面评价的恐惧（FNE）可能是社交焦虑诱发痛苦的机制。然而，研究这一点可能具有挑战性，因为患有社交焦虑症的人可能不愿进入引发焦虑的社交场合，例如在他人面前讲话。本研究使用虚拟现实 (VR) 来检验在虚拟观众面前进行演讲是否会引起本科生的痛苦，并检验 FNE 会调解社交焦虑和痛苦之间关系的假设。大学生 （ñ= 58, 70% 的女性）进入一个 VR 环境，他们站在虚拟观众面前，就他们的大学进行了简短的即兴演讲。参与者还完成了社交焦虑、FNE 和痛苦的自我报告测量（在 VR 之前、期间和之后估计）。Distress和FNE与社交焦虑呈正相关关系，FNE完全介导了社交焦虑和苦恼之间的关系。据我们所知，这是第一个展示这种效果的 VR 研究。研究结果表明，FNE 可能是一个有用的治疗目标，可以减少在 VR 或面对面的观众面前呈现时的痛苦。