Blushing-Fearful individuals' judgmental biases and conditional cognitions: An internet inquiry

Abstract

The present study examines two mechanisms that might explain why blushing-fearful individuals fear blushing: Judgmental biases for blushing in ordinary social situations that usually do not elicit a blush, and negative conditional cognitions about blushing irrespective of situation. A webbased self-report measure, linked to a German internet forum for people with fear of blushing, was completed by a group of high blushing-fearful participants (n=155) and a low fear group (n=61). Supporting the idea that cognitive biases are involved in fear of blushing, blushing-fearful participants showed inflated estimates of both the probability and the costs of blushing in these situations. In addition, blushingfearful individuals were characterized by relatively negative conditional cognitions about blushing. © Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2009.