4 - (SYM 40) Keeping Others at Arm's Length: Ecological Momentary Assessment of Fears of Receiving Compassion and Safety Behaviour Use in Naturalistic, Daily Social Interactions of Socially Anxious Individuals

Individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) fear portraying themselves negatively and are driven to conceal perceived flaws using safety behaviours (Moscovitch et al., 2013). Emerging research shows that individuals with SAD additionally fear receiving compassion from others, further contributing to maladaptive safety behaviour use (Ho et al., 2021). However, much of the existing research is correlational, with little known about links between fears of receiving compassion, safety behaviour use, and key affective outcomes in context-dependent, naturalistic social interactions. In a preregistered study, we recruited a diverse sample of 205 undergraduate participants (70% women, 21% men, 4% gender non-conforming; 33% White, 28% South Asian, 14% East Asian, 4% Arab, 4% Southeast Asian, 3% Black, 2% Latin American) across a range of trait social anxiety symptoms. Participants completed ecological momentary assessment (EMA) via a smartphone app over 7 days, receiving 5 prompts per day at quasi-random intervals to report on their most recent social interaction. From a total of 2,748 recorded social interactions, linear mixed effects models accounting for trait social anxiety revealed that momentary fears of negative portrayal (b = 0.54, β = .18 , t = 14.23, p < .001, R²_marginal = .135, R²_conditional = .807) and momentary fears of receiving compassion (b = 0.22, β = .09 , t = 5.40, p < .001, R²_m = .135, R²_c = .807) each significantly predicted increased momentary safety behaviour use. In turn, momentary safety behaviour use significantly predicted increased momentary negative affect (b = 0.85, β = .45, t = 13.83, p < .001, R²_m = .229, R²_c = .633) but had no effect on momentary positive affect (b = 0.07, β = .01, t = 0.52, p = .77 , R²_m = .000, R²_c = .433). Notably, momentary safety behaviour use predicted decreased feelings of momentary social safeness (b = -0.86, β = -.35, t = 13.57, p < .001, R²_m =  .106, R²_c = .449) and social reward (b = -0.51, β = -.37, t = 12.67, p < .001, R²_m = .105, R²_c = .337), suggesting that safety behaviour use fuelled by fears of receiving compassion disrupts the emotional benefits of socializing, even when people enter rather than avoid social interactions. These findings have clinical implications for the treatment of SAD: for some socially anxious individuals, cognitive-behavioural interventions targeting fears of receiving compassion—alongside fears of portraying oneself negatively—in contexts where these fears are especially heightened could reduce the use of safety behaviours that maintain anxiety and erode social safeness and reward.