The Interpretation Bias For Contextual Information Of Shy Individuals

There are many shy people around us.Shyness is a common personality trait,which is highly similar to social anxiety.A large number of studies have confirmed that social anxiety individuals have three cognitive biases: attention,memory and interpretation bias.Previous studies have also found the existence of attention bias and interpretation bias of shy people.At present,there is a lack of research on the interpretation bias of shy individuals.To explore the characteristics of shy individuals’ bias in the interpretation of contextual information,we did five experiments to study the problem.In Experiment 1,the design of a single factor test was used to confirm the existence of shy individuals’ interpretation bias.In Experiment 2a,the mixed design of 2(Shyness: high / low shyness)× 3(Event valence:positive /neutral / negative events)×2(Self: self / non-self)was used for exploring the characteristics of shyness individuals’ bias in the interpretation of different valence event types.At the same time,it also examines the differences between the self and non-self related situations.In Experiment 2b,the mixed design of 2(Shyness: high / low shyness)× 2(Interpretation types: positive / negative interpretation)was used for exploring the characteristics of high and low shyness individuals’ positive interpretation bias and negative interpretation bias when they the face negative events related to themselves.In Experiment 3a,the mixed design of 2(Shyness: high / low shyness)×2(Contextual clarity: ambiguous / clarity events)× 2(Self: self / non-self)was used for exploring the characteristics of shyness individuals’ interpretation bias to different clarity information,it also examines the differences between the self and non-self related situations.In Experiment 3b,the mixed design of 2(Shyness: high / low shyness)× 2(Interpretation types: positive / negative interpretation)was used for exploring the characteristics of high and low shyness individuals’ positive interpretation bias and negative interpretation bias when they the face ambiguous events related to themselves.The results showed that:(1)For ambiguous and clarity events,high shyness individualswere more likely to make a threatening or negative interpretation;(2)In the face of the neutral and negative events,the high shy individuals tended to make the threat of explanatory bias.And for positive events,there was marginally significant difference between high and low shyness individuals’ interpretation bias;(3)In the face of the contextual information related to self,the subjects had more interpretation bias;(4)High shyness individuals did not lack positive interpretation bias,but there were more negative interpretation bias.