Abstract

This study examined the relationship between symptoms of social anxiety and the impression formed when perceiving other people’s faces. A total of 96 college students completed a self-reporting scale to measure social anxiety. In the experiment, participants were presented with a face and asked to evaluate dominance (submission) or trustworthiness (untrustworthiness). The point of subjective equality (PSE) was calculated, and a correlational analysis between PSEs and social anxiety symptoms was conducted. The results showed a significantly negative correlation between social anxiety and the PSE of submissive-dominance and a significantly positive correlation between social anxiety and the PSE of untrustworthiness-trustworthiness. These results imply that an increased social anxiety leads to a lowered threshold level for the perception of dominance but a heightened threshold level for the perception of trustworthiness. Individuals with a high level of social anxiety tended to perceive other people’s faces as more dominant and less trustworthy. These results suggest that a distorted perception of dominance and trustworthiness significantly influences social anxiety.