The effects of reading social anxiety words on anxious responding.

Two studies were conducted to determine if repeated exposure to social anxiety words decreased anxious responding in individuals diagnosed with social phobia. In the first study, four participants were asked to read words aloud, and in the second study, three participants were asked to read words silently. Single-subject methodology, using an alternating treatments design, was utilized. Anxious responding was assessed via Stroop test color-naming time of social and neutral words, word-reading time of social and neutral words, heart rate during word-reading and color-naming, and self-reports of distress. Results indicate that repeated reading of social anxiety words reduces anxious responding, and that this effect is not simply due to the performance-based nature of the task. Reading social words aloud, however, a procedure which combines exposure to the social words and to a social performance task, has the most anxiety-reducing properties