Effects of Stereotypes on Relationships and Interpersonal Functioning: An Investigation of Social Anxiety Disorder

In this study, we explored the associations between endorsing two stereotypes of people with social anxiety disorder (SAD; i.e., the social inhibition stereotype and the oddity stereotype), and interpersonal outcomes. We performed a secondary data analysis on a sample of participants with SAD (n = 75) and without SAD (n = 60) who completed multiple study visits, including diagnostic interviews, and brought friends (n = 91) and romantic partners (n = 61) into the study. To investigate effects of endorsing stereotypes of SAD on relationship satisfaction, we examined participant self-report ratings of relationship satisfaction as well as friend- and romantic partner-reported ratings. Higher endorsement of the social inhibition stereotype was associated with lower participant self-reported friendship satisfaction but was not associated with friend-reported ratings. Neither endorsement of social inhibition nor endorsement of oddity predicted participant-reported or partner-reported romantic relationship ratings. Neither endorsement of the social inhibition nor oddity stereotype was associated with self-reported number of interpersonal problems due to coldness, but higher endorsement of the social inhibition stereotype was associated with more self-reported interpersonal problems due to submissiveness. Our results suggest that: (1) of the two stereotypes, the social inhibition stereotype may be more predictive of interpersonal variables among those with SAD; (2) SAD stereotype endorsement is associated with self-reported relationship satisfaction among those with SAD, but is not associated with partner-reported ratings; and (3) SAD stereotype endorsement may not predict interpersonal outcomes among individuals with SAD to the extent that we originally hypothesized.