Psychological peculiarities of shyness manifestation by social network bloggers

Iakimanskaia Irina ORCID: 0000-0001-7503-9848 PhD in Psychology Associate Professor, Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Orenburg State Medical University of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation 460000, Russia, Orenburg region, Orenburg, ul. Sovetskaya, 6 Yakimanskay@narod.ru Other publications by this author

Shyness is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that has a significant impact on a person's social behavior and personal development. As a character trait, it can manifest itself in various forms and with varying intensity, which makes it a subject of interest to psychologists, sociologists and other specialists. It is especially interesting to consider shyness in the context of public and non-public people, since their social roles and expectations of society can significantly influence the manifestations of this trait.

The relevance of studying shyness is due to its impact on the quality of life and social interaction of people. In today's world, where publicity and social media are playing an increasingly important role, understanding how shyness manifests itself in various groups of people is becoming an important aspect of research, psychological care and psychotherapy, which allows not only to deepen knowledge about this trait, but also to develop effective approaches to overcome it.

The choice of the research topic is determined by its significance in the context of the study of personality psychology and social behavior. Shyness, despite its prevalence, remains insufficiently studied in terms of the influence of social roles and group norms. The study of this topic will reveal new aspects and approaches to its understanding.

Publicity has a significant impact on the manifestation of shyness in individuals. People who are in the spotlight of society are forced to adapt to the constant interest of others, which can both enhance and smooth out the manifestations of shyness. On the one hand, publicity can stimulate the development of self-presentation skills, allowing you to hide inner insecurities. On the other hand, constant pressure can increase anxiety in social situations. It should be noted that we have not found any studies of shyness specifically among bloggers, although there are quite a lot of mentions about them. That is why we have undertaken this study. If we talk about the experience of studying shyness in domestic and foreign psychology, the study of shyness in children, identifying opportunities and directions for its correction, is in the first place in terms of frequency. Thus, O.V. Klypa^[1] examines the causes and consequences of shyness in childhood, K.L. Poole et al. ^[2,3] study the contribution of temperament and anxiety to the manifestations of shyness in preschoolers. Most of the publications relate to the description of programs for psychocorrection and overcoming shyness of a child, Zhogina I.A. ^[4] describes the features of such work with children with disabilities. Most often, such work is aimed at building self-confidence ^[5]. When reviewing methods of psychocorrection of manifestations of shyness in preschool age, it is impossible not to mention fairy tale therapy ^[6.7], play activities ^[8,9]. There is a lot of data on the role of the family in the psychocorrection of shyness in childhood ^[10]. Studies of the manifestations of adolescent shyness are also quite common, here they analyze the interrelationships of levels of self-esteem ^[11] , loneliness ^[12], social anxiety ^[13], charm ^[14] with shyness. Indeed, the phenomenon of shyness itself is multifaceted, on the one hand, it causes difficulties in social contacts, on the other hand, it can be attractive in interpersonal relationships. And if in childhood there are frequent studies of shyness in applied terms, in order to correct it, then at an older age – early and late adulthood, maturity – shyness is studied in order to understand its nature, structure, and its impact on adult life. Our research relates to this area. Thus, it is considered, for example, by Wang Yu.L. et al. ^[15] the relationship between the use of social networks and loneliness and the deterrent effect of shyness in adulthood, P.E. Lengkat et al. ^[16] causes and consequences of shyness in adults, Hassan R. et al. ^[17] the relationship between internal conflict and shyness, Xiao B. et al. other ^[18] shyness and social activity. V.P. Sheinov et al. ^[4] in their work, they test the hypothesis of the relationship between problematic smartphone use and shyness, self-esteem and self-esteem. In general, it can be noted that it is generally recognized that shyness is a rather deep characteristic of a personality associated with value orientations, features of a person's self-attitude, which can be traced in the questionnaires of shyness (for example, Sheinov V.P., Devitsyn A.S. ^[20]). In the context of the above research review, we were interested in the question of shyness among public people – social media bloggers, we assume that it has its own characteristics related to their public activities. Actors, musicians, and politicians often hide their shyness behind a professional mask, demonstrating confidence in public, to what extent this pattern can manifest itself among current bloggers – that's the subject of our interest. It should be noted that non-public people who do not need constant interaction with a wide audience show shyness in a different way. They tend to avoid social situations that are perceived as stressful. Shy individuals face serious difficulties in establishing interpersonal contacts, often showing passivity in activities and excessive concern for self-assessment. The manifestations of shyness vary significantly depending on the social context.

An object: people with high publicity (social media bloggers)

Subject: manifestations of shyness in public people – social media bloggers

Purpose: to study the manifestations of shyness in people with a high level of publicity

Research hypothesis: subjects with high publicity (social media bloggers) differ in the features of shyness from subjects who are not active and public social media bloggers.

Since shyness is often determined by internal conflict, self-doubt, on the one hand, and motivation for achievement, a high level of ambition and general activity, on the other hand, we have chosen the following methods for diagnosing shyness and the features of its manifestation:

1. The Stanford Shyness Test by F. Zimbardo, modified by A.B. Belousova

2. Methods of personality diagnosis for motivation to success and motivation to avoid failures by T. Ehlers.

3. Eysenck's EPI methodology

The result of the experiment should show whether the mechanisms of shyness (external, internal, and physiological) and the situations of shyness are different between bloggers and people in non-public professions. This will help to conclude that perhaps the chosen social role forms ways of psychological protection and exacerbates the problem of difficulties in contacting shy people, or vice versa, it helps to develop specific ways of more effective interaction and thereby solves the problem of difficulty in contact. If there is no difference between the manifestation of shyness in bloggers and people of non-public professions, it can be concluded that shyness is manifested in the same way in all people, regardless of their social activity, and the social role of a social media blogger does not affect the manifestations of shyness in any way.

The sample consisted of 60 people: 30 social media bloggers with frequent posts and more than 5,000 subscribers, and 30 non-public subjects who did not regularly conduct social media. We offered all the subjects an express survey with one question: do they consider themselves shy? After screening out all those who do not consider themselves shy, 20 bloggers and 20 non-public subjects, 50% of men and 50% of women aged 25-36, underwent the study, the samples are comparable in age and gender characteristics. All the subjects gave informed consent to the study, and the data was obtained using Google forms.

Processing using the Mann-Whitney criterion did not reveal statistically significant differences in shyness in general – U is empirical (145) in the zone of insignificance. Shyness turned out to be such a powerful personal education that it blurred the line even between such seemingly polar opposite publicity samples. It follows that shy people, no matter who they work for, have more in common in personal characteristics than people who work in an identical position with them, but are not shy. However, a detailed analysis of the responses to each question of the Stanford Shyness Test and their comparison using the U-test revealed several statistically significant differences between the samples in terms of specific features of shyness. This means that the hypothesis about the existence of significant differences in the manifestations of shyness among people in public and non-public professions has been partially confirmed.

First of all, it turned out that social media bloggers are much more successful at hiding their shyness. The empirical U (78), with a confidence of 0.01, was in the zone of significance for the question "When you feel shy, can you hide it?" This is an important result, as there is no statistically significant difference between the samples in terms of the strength of shyness experienced and the frequency of its occurrence. That is, bloggers at the moment of shyness experience with a similar frequency and intensity about the same things as non-public subjects, but they are able to hide it from prying eyes. Consequently, publicity affects the ability to better conceal shyness, that is, it forms some features of the manifestation of shyness (Figure 1).

Figure 1 - Answers to the question "When you feel shy, can you hide it?"(blue – bloggers, red – non-public subjects)

As a rule, we can find out that a person is experiencing some kind of condition or emotion, including shyness, by external physiological signs and his behavior at that moment. Interestingly, there was a statistically significant difference in the physiological symptoms of shyness, in particular in limb trembling (Figures 2 and 3).

Figure 2- Manifestations of trembling in the extremities at the moment of shyness among social media bloggers

Figure 3 - Manifestations of trembling in the extremities at the moment of shyness in non-public subjects

At the moment of shyness, the hands or feet of social media bloggers do not tremble or tremble much less than those of non-public subjects (U-empirical 126 with U-critical 138 with confidence 0.05). Perhaps, thanks to this outwardly noticeable manifestation, which is reduced among bloggers, it is easier for them to hide their shyness. However, there was no statistically significant difference in the samples for all other symptoms, such as blushing, palpitations, dry lips, increased sweating, fatigue, and stomach discomfort.

Of the behavioral signs of shyness according to the Mann-Whitney criterion, a statistically significant difference (U-emp. 116) was revealed when answering the question "When you feel shy, do you often remain silent, unable to utter a word?". Social media bloggers are not speechless and generally do not differ in silence, even at the moment of shyness, and this also misleads others, not allowing them to guess that the blogger is experiencing shyness. Perhaps it is the need to keep a conversation going, no matter how you feel, while being recorded or live on the air, rather than keeping silent, that forms the behavioral difference described above between social media bloggers and non-public subjects (Figure 4).

Figure 4 - Responses from both samples to the question "When you experience shyness, do you often remain silent, unable to utter a word"? (blue – bloggers, red – non-public subjects)

As for other typical behavioral signs of shyness (quiet voice, halting speech, inability to make eye contact, fiddling with a pencil, avoiding actions and communication), the responses in both samples were practically the same, which does not allow us to identify features specific only to social media bloggers.

A statistically significant difference (U-emf. 94.5 with a confidence of 0.01), revealed using the U-test, was also found in the cognitive component of the test. Unlike non-public subjects, bloggers found the answers "never" and "very rarely" to the question "When you feel shy, do you often want to run away or hide somewhere?" very popular. (Figure 5).

As can be seen from the results, bloggers in a fit of shyness even think about the possibility of running away less often than others, and the influence of publicity is really possible here.

Figure 5 - Responses of both samples to the question "When you feel shy, do you often want to run away or hide somewhere"?(blue – bloggers, red – non-public subjects)

When you're in the public eye, in the spotlight, on live TV, dreams of escape can only distract. It is more effective to try to cope with shyness, to hide it, without changing the communication situation itself. This is confirmed by our research.

U-empirical (137.5) also turned out to be below the U-critical level for the question "Do you often think at the moment of shyness that you would like to avoid an unpleasant situation?", falling into the zone of uncertainty. However, this question, which is similar in meaning to the question of wanting to run and hide, only confirms the behavioral tendency of social media bloggers – not to run away, but to stay in the situation without showing that they are feeling shy.

In general, there are few differences in the samples for the situations traditionally considered the most capable of provoking shyness. Although it could be assumed that social media bloggers should experience less shyness when, for example, they are the center of attention of a group of people, since they encounter this situation more often than non-public subjects and should have gotten used to it by now. However, the test results showed that in the focus of the group, 20% of social media bloggers experience excessive shyness and 60% severe shyness. And this is quite comparable with the indicators of a group of non-public subjects, 80% experience strong and extremely strong shyness in such a situation.

The reactions of both samples were comparable in other situations sensitive to shyness. Both groups scored the highest points for shyness when they were criticized, compared, or evaluated (100% were non-public subjects, 85% were social media bloggers), which indicates that shy people are very susceptible and sensitive to criticism.

The need to defend their rights, oddly enough, causes shyness among social media bloggers more than among non-public subjects (75% vs. 55%). By their profession, social media bloggers often have to defend the rights of other people who have contacted them. And when you need to "fight" for yourself, other personal mechanisms seem to turn on, including shyness.

When asking for help, 45% of social media bloggers and 60% of non-public subjects are very shy. Being in an informal setting, for example, at a dance or a party with a nice person of the opposite sex, 40% of social media bloggers and 45% of non-public subjects experience strong shyness. As you can see, when it comes to something very personal, unrelated to publicity, the acquired skills do not help social media bloggers much (Table 1).

Statistically significant differences (U-emf. 115 with a confidence of 0.05) were found in the severity of shyness in a situation where subjects were introduced to a small group or asked for their opinion.

Table 1 - Distribution of the number of people in both samples experiencing severe shyness in these circumstances

As can be seen from the table, almost half as many social media bloggers as non-public subjects consider this situation to be "dangerous" in terms of shyness.

As shown by the Stanford shyness test and the Mann-Whitney criterion, the following differences in the manifestations of shyness among social media bloggers and non-public subjects have been reliably proven: they differ in the ability to hide their shyness; the ability not to lose the power of speech and not to remain silent at the moment of shyness; trembling of limbs in a situation of shyness; thoughts that it would be good to avoid unpleasant the desire to hide in a situation of shyness; the ability to experience shyness when expressing one's opinion, being in the center of attention of a group of people.

All these features may be explained by the influence of the publicity of social media bloggers.

No statistically significant features were found for all other parameters. This means that there are more similarities than differences between social media bloggers and non-public subjects. Publicity does not have much effect on personality shyness in general, with the exception of a few specific manifestations mentioned above. Consequently, according to the results of the Stanford shyness test, the hypothesis that there are significant differences in the manifestations of shyness among social media bloggers and non-public subjects is partially confirmed.