Effects of Social Anxiety and Tone of Text-Message Interaction on Metaperceptions of Neuroticism

Cognitive models of social anxiety (SA) suggest that an individual's negative beliefs about the way they are perceived by others (metaperceptions) are an important feature of the disorder (Christensen et al., 2003). As technology has continued to change, communication among others has also changed from using face-to-face interaction (FtF) to using computer-mediated communication (i.e. texting or instant messaging). While incorporating metaperceptions, the present study used "positive" and "neutral" vignettes to analyze opinions about metaperceptions of a vignette character engaged in a text conversation. Results suggested that there was a significant main effect for tone of text message interaction: those that read a neutral text message vignette thought that the receiver of the text message would think they were perceived as more neurotic in comparison to participants who read the positive text message. The main effect for level of SA and the interaction effect between level of SA and tone of text message interaction did not reach statistical significance.