Self-evaluations in social anxiety: The combined role of explicit and implicit social-rank

Evolutionary models highlight the centrality of the social-rank system in social anxiety (SA). Cognitive models emphasize the role of low self-evaluations (SEs) in the etiology and maintenance of SA. Based on these models, we predicted that explicit and implicit social-rank SEs are negatively associated with SA-severity. Consistent with previous findings, we also expected the negative association between SA-severity and implicit social-rank SEs to be intensified by low levels of explicit social-rank SEs. Participants (N = 216) performed social-rank and affiliation versions of the Self Implicit Association Test (Greenwald & Farnham, 2000) to assess implicit SEs. Next, they rated themselves on traits concerning social-rank and affiliation to assess explicit SEs. We found that SA-severity is associated with explicit social-rank SEs, above and beyond the effects of self-esteem, depression-severity, and affiliation SEs. Moreover, SA-severity was further associated with the inter-relationship between explicit and implicit social-rank SEs: At low levels of explicit SEs, implicit SEs are negatively related to SA-severity, whereas this association did not hold at high levels of explicit SEs. These findings extend and refine cognitive theories in highlighting the importance of social-rank SEs in SA. The role of understanding the multifaceted structure of the self in conceptualizing SA is underlined.