Putting on your best face: investigating social anxiety in Instagram users

ABSTRACT

Objective

Socially anxious individuals may prefer social media platforms over in-person interactions. For those with high social anxiety (SA), Facebook-related tasks have been associated with anxiety, negative thoughts, and safety behaviours. However, Instagram-related research remains limited. The present study aimed to assess Instagram use alongside cognitive and behavioural processes among participants with low, medium, and high SA. We hypothesised that when using Instagram, individuals with higher SA would (1) experience more negative social cognitions, (2) report higher body image concerns, (3) endorse more safety behaviours when posting pictures, and (4) engage in more photo manipulation.

Method

A sample of 213 Instagram users completed an online survey and were divided into groups based on SA severity.

Results

The high SA group reported comparing themselves to others and being more anxious on Instagram than the low and medium SA groups. Four 3 (SA groups) x 2 (gender) ANOVAs revealed support for the first three hypotheses and that there was no interaction effect between SA and gender for all outcomes.

Conclusions

Results expand our understanding of how specific social media platforms may be aversive for individuals with high SA, which has important implications for conceptualising the role of safety behaviours in online interactions.

KEY POINTS

What is already known on this topic:

1. Individuals with high social anxiety may prefer online social interactions.

2. Clark and Wells’ cognitive model of social anxiety can be extended to the online social media platforms.

3. Social anxiety may be underpinned by body image concerns.

What this paper adds:

1. Instagram users with social anxiety experienced more negative social media cognitions and reported more safety behaviours.

2. Instagram users with social anxiety also experienced more body image concerns.

3. Despite gender differences in photo manipulation, an associated relationship with social anxiety was not supported.

KEYWORDS:

• Social anxiety
• safety behaviours
• Instagram
• social media
• social media cognitions
• body dissatisfaction

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Emma Warnock-Parkes, Sophie Carruthers, and David M. Clark for kindly providing social anxiety measures that were used in the current study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).