Impact of social anxiety on communication skills in face-to-face vs. online contexts

Abstract

Individuals with social anxiety have been shown to prefer communicating through online platforms. Part of this preference may be accounted for by their self-perceived level of social skill ability in online modalities. However, it is unclear whether perceived social skill abilities change across in-person and online contexts. Therefore, this study investigated whether specific social skills, like sociability, assertiveness, self-disclosure, and non-verbal emotion recognition vary across online and face-to-face settings. We first validated the Real and Electronic Communications Skills (RECS) questionnaire using a confirmatory factor analysis in a sample of 780 participants, who completed the survey through Qualtrics. We then conducted a series of correlations and a doubly multivariate GLM to evaluate whether perceived social skills abilities are influenced by communication medium and social anxiety. Our results indicated that we were able to validate the RECS, and that specific social skills like sociability and assertiveness are influenced by communication medium. Specifically, higher social anxiety scores were associated with decreased in-person sociability, emotion recognition, and assertiveness. The results highlight a potential perceived barrier to approaching in-person interactions, which may exacerbate avoidance of social interaction, thus resulting in social isolation and loneliness.