I might look OK, but I’m still doubtful, anxious, and avoidant: The mixed effects of enhanced video feedback on social anxiety symptoms

Previous experiments suggest that cognitive preparation for video feedback enhances its effects. In the current experiment, which included 95 speech-anxious undergraduates, these effects were more fully assessed, including those on self-perception, anxiety, and speech-avoidance behavior, with an attention-control preparation as a comparison condition. A possible mechanism of the cognitive preparation’s effects, moderation of the effects of self-observer discrepancy, was also tested. Results indicated that the cognitive preparation showed strong effects in regard to self-perception of performance, weak effects in anxiety reduction, and null effects in behavior. Consistent with previous research, self-observer discrepancy showed a robust tendency to predict participant response across conditions.