Social anxiety and employment interviews: does nonverbal feedback differentially predict cortisol and performance?

Background & Objectives: Interviewers often provide positive nonverbal feedback to reduce interviewees' anxiety. Socially anxious individuals typically harbor negative self-views discrepant with positive feedback. We examined whether nonverbal feedback and social anxiety jointly influence cortisol responses to, and performance during, interviews. Design: An experimental between-subjects design randomly assigned participants to feedback condition. Methods: Undergraduate students (N = 130) provided saliva and completed social anxiety, interview anxiety, and affective measures before a simulated interview. Following a standardized script, a confederate interviewer provided positive, ambiguous, or negative nonverbal feedback. Participants then provided saliva and completed self-focused attention and self-awareness measures. Confederate interviewers and an external rater evaluated participants' anxiety displays, assertive behavior, and performance. Results: Positive feedback decreased cortisol and improved performance for low social anxiety participants. Socially anxious participants exhibited higher cortisol but did not exhibit significant differences in performance after positive compared to negative feedback. Conclusions: Consistent with previous findings, positive feedback did not benefit socially anxious interviewees. Positive feedback increased physiological arousal relative to negative feedback but did not hinder performance among people high in social anxiety. These results provide novel information about the interactive influence of social anxiety and nonverbal interviewer feedback on arousal, self-focus, and interview performance.

6 citations (Crossref) [2023-10-31] tex.address: 2-4 PARK SQUARE, MILTON PARK, ABINGDON OR14 4RN, OXON, ENGLAND tex.affiliation: Budnick, CJ (Reprint Author), Northern Illinois Univ, Dept Psychol, De Kalb, IL 60115 USA. Budnick, CJ (Reprint Author), Southern Connecticut State Univ, Dept Psychol, New Haven, CT 06515 USA. Budnick, Christopher J.; Anderson, Eden M.; Santuzzi, Alecia M.; Grippo, Angela J.; Matuszewich, Leslie, Northern Illinois Univ, Dept Psychol, De Kalb, IL 60115 USA. Budnick, Christopher J., Southern Connecticut State Univ, Dept Psychol, New Haven, CT 06515 USA. Anderson, Eden M., Marquette Univ, Dept Biomed Sci, Milwaukee, WI 53233 USA. tex.author-email: budnickc1@southernct.edu tex.da: 2019-10-31 tex.doc-delivery-number: HC5HI tex.eissn: 1477-2205 tex.funding-acknowledgement: National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship ProgramNational Science Foundation (NSF) [G1A 62516] tex.funding-text: This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program under grant number [G1A 62516] awarded to the first author while at Northern Illinois University. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; Division of Graduate Education tex.journal-iso: Anxiety Stress Coping tex.keywords-plus: SELF-VERIFICATION PROCESSES; MEMORY PERFORMANCE; FOCUSED ATTENTION; STRESS; NOREPINEPHRINE; CONSCIOUSNESS; RESPONSES tex.number-of-cited-references: 48 tex.publisher: TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD tex.research-areas: Neurosciences & Neurology; Psychiatry; Psychology tex.times-cited: 0 tex.type: Article tex.unique-id: ISI:000451833700005 tex.usage-count-last-180-days: 1 tex.usage-count-since-2013: 14 tex.web-of-science-categories: Neurosciences; Psychiatry; Psychology, Multidisciplinary Citation Key: ISI:000451833700005