Can't look away – The effects of social media cues signaling social evaluation on the attention allocation of socially anxious individuals

Background Research on attention allocation to signs of social feedback in social anxiety has mainly shown attentional avoidance. Yet, our social world is vastly changing. Physical in-person encounters are no longer the sole medium for social interactions, as social media platforms (SMP's) fulfil a significant part of social life. Still, assessing attention allocation to indicators of social evaluation/feedback in social anxiety in this novel environment is still scarce. Methods Socially anxious (n = 30) and nonanxious participants (n = 30) completed a reading comprehension task while an Instagram page (unrelated to the task) was concurrently visible on the computer screen. Critically, the Instagram page included an image reflecting participants' personal features (a personalized portfolio), which received "ongoing" mock social evaluation (in the form of “Likes") while participants completed the reading comprehension task. Using eye-tracking methodology, we monitored participants’ attention allocation to the Instagram page, computing the total number of visits to, and the total time spent on, the Instagram page. We then divided the Instagram page to three complementing areas – the "Like" icon; the personalized portfolio image; and the rest of the page – and repeated the same analyses. Results Socially anxious participants exhibited greater attention allocation to the Instagram page, manifesting in both attentional indices (visits, dwell time), which was specifically driven by the Like icon. Results were not affected by participants’ daily Instagram usage time. Conclusion Socially anxious individuals are biased toward signs of social evaluation/feedback when on SMPs, diverging from prior research on attention allocation during ‘concrete/real’ social evaluative contexts.