Differentiated Paths from Fear of Evaluation to Social Anxiety: The Role of Social Comparison

This study investigated how fear of positive evaluation (FPE) and fear of negative evaluation (FNE) were associated with social anxiety through social comparison strategies. A sample of 884 university students completed measures of social anxiety, FPE, FNE, and frequencies of upward and downward social comparison. Results showed that both FPE and FNE were positively associated with social anxiety. Upward social comparison mediated the association between FNE and social anxiety, whereas downward comparison showed no such effect. No indirect associations were observed for FPE through either upward or downward social comparison. These findings suggest that FNE was positively associated with social anxiety both directly and indirectly via upward social comparison, whereas FPE was only directly associated with social anxiety.