Overview Social anxiety affects millions of people and can make everyday interactions feel overwhelming. Simple situations such as talking to a cashier or participating in a conversation can become sources of intense worry and avoidance. This project, SocialDynamics, aims to understand why social interactions are so challenging for socially anxious individuals by studying what actually happens during live social exchanges. Rather than relying on questionnaires or observer ratings alone, the project focuses on the real-time behavioral and neural dynamics of communication, emotion regulation, and learning in social situations.
Why social interactions are difficult in social anxiety
Human communication is flexible, ambiguous, and constantly changing. We continuously adapt to others, interpret subtle signals, and update our behavior based on shared experiences. Socially anxious individuals often struggle in these situations, not only because they feel anxious, but also because they may have difficulty adjusting their behavior and emotions as interactions unfold. These difficulties can lead to misunderstandings, poorer social performance, and negative feedback from others, which in turn reinforces anxiety and avoidance.
Current research has largely missed these dynamics. Most studies average behavior across an entire interaction or focus on non-interactive tasks that do not resemble real social encounters. As a result, we still do not fully understand how social anxiety affects moment-to-moment communication and emotional control in daily life.
Main goal of the project
The central aim of SocialDynamics is to develop a new neurocognitive model of social anxiety that explains how socially anxious individuals deal with the changing demands of real social interactions.
Why this research matters
SocialDynamics brings together communication science, emotion regulation research, and decision-making theory in a single framework. By studying live interactions and moment-to-moment dynamics, it moves beyond traditional laboratory approaches and closer to real life.
The expected findings have the potential to reshape how social anxiety is understood and treated. Current therapies mainly focus on reducing anxiety and changing negative thoughts. This project highlights the importance of interpersonal dynamics and flexibility, suggesting that treatments could be improved by targeting communication skills, emotion regulation choices, and learning under uncertainty. In the long term, the results may also inform new interventions, such as personalized training or brain stimulation techniques, to help people navigate social interactions more effectively.
What we will know at the end
By the end of the project, SocialDynamics will provide a comprehensive, brain-based account of how social anxiety affects communication, emotion regulation, and learning during real social interactions. It will show how small, moment-to-moment interpersonal difficulties can accumulate into persistent social problems, and how these processes might be targeted to break the cycle of anxiety and social withdrawal.
Interested in participating in this research or learning more about the project? Feel free to contact the research team at social-dynamics [at] donders.ru.nl.
