New research shows the unexpected benefits of a fixed mindset for social anxiety

Believing that people rarely change their first impressions might actually help individuals who experience high levels of social anxiety. New research published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin indicates that this fixed view of social judgments reduces the mental burden of socializing. By assuming that social evaluations are stable, anxious individuals can let their guard down, allowing them to perform better and enjoy interactions more.

People who experience high social anxiety often fear negative evaluation, mockery, and rejection. This intense fear causes them to focus inward during conversations. They constantly monitor their own behavior, looking for perceived flaws or awkwardness. This cycle of self-criticism requires immense mental energy and acts like a distracting background noise, leaving fewer resources to simply engage naturally in a social setting.

Psychological research often looks at mindsets to understand how people handle challenges. A mindset is a person’s underlying belief about whether human traits can change. A growth mindset assumes traits are malleable and can be improved, while a fixed mindset assumes they are stable and unchangeable. Past therapeutic efforts have sometimes tried teaching anxious individuals that their own personality or anxiety levels can change over time.

Bar-Ilan University researcher Liad Uziel approached the problem from a different angle. Instead of focusing on a person’s beliefs about their own internal traits, Uziel investigated their beliefs about how other people form impressions. In daily life, we try to shape how others perceive us, a process known as impression management.

Uziel hypothesized that if socially anxious individuals believe impressions are relatively fixed, social situations might feel more predictable. If people form an opinion and stick to it, the pressure to constantly manage one’s public image drops. This predictability could reduce the need to obsessively monitor one’s own behavior, freeing up mental energy to focus on the conversation itself.

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To test this idea, Uziel conducted a preliminary online study with 182 participants from the United Kingdom. The participants completed questionnaires measuring their levels of social anxiety, their beliefs about how people form impressions, and the extent to which they feel drained by managing their public image. The goal was to see how these factors naturally align in the general public.

The results showed that higher social anxiety was heavily linked to feeling depleted by social interactions. Yet, for participants who naturally leaned toward a fixed mindset regarding impression formation, this draining effect was noticeably weaker. Believing that social judgments are stable seemed to buffer against the exhaustion of socializing.

Uziel then conducted a laboratory experiment with 200 undergraduate students in Israel to see if manipulating these mindsets could change actual behavior. The students were randomly assigned to read and agree with statements promoting either a fixed mindset or a growth mindset about impression formation. A fixed mindset prompt suggested that people form durable impressions, while a growth mindset prompt suggested that opinions are constantly updated.

Next, the participants were asked to write a thorough self-introduction, under the premise that they would soon meet another student for a joint task. Independent judges, who did not know which experimental group the students were in, rated these written introductions. They evaluated the text based on traits like friendliness and dominance, which indicate a confident and appealing social presence.

Among students primed with a growth mindset, higher social anxiety resulted in a less appealing self-presentation. They appeared more hesitant and less engaging. For those primed with a fixed mindset, higher social anxiety was not associated with a worse impression. The simple belief that impressions are stable allowed anxious participants to present a more desirable version of themselves.

A second experiment raised the stakes by introducing a more stressful social task. A new group of 155 undergraduate students underwent the same mindset manipulation. Afterward, they had to talk about themselves for two minutes while being recorded by a video camera. Presenting oneself on camera is a well-known method for inducing social stress in laboratory settings.

Objective observers watched the videos and rated the participants on their eye contact, vocal clarity, comfort, and conversational flow. The findings mirrored the previous experiment. Students with high social anxiety who adopted a growth mindset appeared more anxious and less comfortable on camera. Conversely, those who adopted a fixed mindset performed just as well as their less anxious peers.

A final study tracked 158 students over several days to measure real-world social experiences. Participants were again assigned to adopt either a fixed or a growth mindset. This time, they also wrote about a personal memory that aligned with that specific belief, an exercise designed to reinforce the manipulated mindset.

Three days later, the students reported on the quality, stress levels, and satisfaction of their recent social interactions. In the real world, the mindset shift made a noticeable difference. Participants with higher social anxiety reported having better and more satisfying social experiences over the three-day period if they had been primed with a fixed mindset. Those primed with a growth mindset reported worse social experiences.

A growth mindset about social judgments means believing that you are constantly being evaluated and reevaluated. For someone who is already socially anxious, this belief likely turns every conversation into a high-stakes performance. A fixed mindset takes away that pressure, allowing the person to relax after the initial introduction.

While these findings offer a new way to cope with social stress, the research was conducted using general student and online populations. The study did not specifically test individuals who have been clinically diagnosed with a social anxiety disorder. The observed behavioral changes in the laboratory were also relatively brief. Future research will need to determine if teaching a fixed mindset about impression formation can provide long-term relief in clinical therapeutic settings.

The study, “The Soothing Effect of a Stable World: Social Behavior of Individuals Varying on Social Anxiety Under Fixed and Growth Mindsets About Impression Formation,” was authored by Liad Uziel.