Social Anxiety Is Related to Deficits in Social Reward Processing: The Role of Controllability

The association between social anxiety and deficits in reward processing is well established. However, it remains unclear how individuals with social anxiety process reward with different controllability as well as the underlying mechanisms. Hence, the current study aimed to investigate social reward processing in individuals with social anxiety, focusing on reward controllability to identify potential deficiencies in processing. 24 individuals with low social anxiety (LSAs) and 24 individuals with high social anxiety (HSAs) completed a Social Incentive Delay Cued-Flanker task. HSAs showed no difference in cue-P3 amplitude increase between controllable and uncontrollable reward cues, whereas LSAs did, indicating an early-stage attentional bias in HSAs. However, HSAs exhibited larger contingent negative variation (CNV) for controllable reward cues, indicating greater motor preparation at a later stage of cue processing. Additionally, under uncontrollable conditions, HSAs showed a blunted ΔRewP compared to LSAs in response to "worse-than-expectation" rewards, and the largest ΔRewP for "better-than-expectation" rewards. This suggests a pessimistic expectancy bias in HSAs towards obtaining social rewards under uncontrollable conditions. These results highlight the bias of HSAs in processing rewards with different controllability, which could be crucial mechanisms in the development and maintenance of social anxiety.