(PS2-A2) Nobody’s Perfect! the Effect of Manipulating Perfectionism on Social Anxiety Symptoms

Background: Social anxiety is a common experience that ranges from mild, temporary distress to excessive, persistent, and impairing fear. Post-event processing is a cognitive process where one overanalyzes their previous social performance. Perfectionism involves setting high expectations and standards for oneself and others, with an emphasis on being flawless. The current study tested whether perfectionism is causally related to social anxiety symptoms and post-event processing using a contract-based manipulation to shift perfectionism. There were 3 contract conditions for this study: High Personal Standards (High PS), High Personal Standards with Evaluative Concerns (High PS+EC), and Low Personal Standards (Low PS). It was hypothesized that participants assigned to the High PS and the High PS+EC conditions would report larger increases in perfectionism compared to the Low PS condition. However, we hypothesized that increases in social anxiety symptoms and post-event processing would only occur in the High PS+EC condition, given that concerns over evaluations are a key feature of social anxiety.

Methods: Participants (N = 66) completed measures of social anxiety (Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation; BFNE) and perfectionism (Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale; FMPS) prior to delivering an impromptu speech. Following the speech task, participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 contract conditions that manipulated the standards participants were asked to hold themselves to over the next 24-hours (High PS; High PS+EC; Low PS). The following day, participants completed the BFNE and FMPS again, as well as a questionnaire on post-event processing related to the impromptu speech (Post-Event Processing Questionnaire–Revised; PEPQ-R).

Results: In line with hypotheses, results suggest that the contract manipulation significantly altered perfectionism (F(2, 64) = 5.12, p = .009, ηp2 = .14). Specifically, participants in the High PS+EC condition had an increase in perfectionism over time (t(21) = 3.24, p = .004). Participants in the other two conditions (High PS, Low PS) did not report a change in perfectionism over time, p > .51. Contrary to expectations, the contract manipulation did not affect social anxiety symptoms (F(2, 64) = 1.55, p = .220, ηp2 = .05) or post-event processing (F(2, 64) = .47, p = .624, ηp2 = .02).

Discussion: Manipulating perfectionism did not increase social anxiety symptoms, which is contrary to previous research demonstrating that perfectionism is implicated in the development and maintenance of social anxiety disorder. It is possible that a stronger manipulation, or a larger dose of the manipulation, is needed to see effects on social anxiety symptoms. Results suggest that focusing on evaluation concerns, rather than personal standards alone, may cause perfectionism. Clinically, results suggest that focusing on reducing evaluative concerns may decrease maladaptive perfectionism.