Revisiting the Social Surrogate Hypothesis: Social Anxiety and Recruiting Others for Social Events

The social surrogate hypothesis proposes that people with higher levels of social anxiety (SA) recruit others to accompany them in social situations. Despite initial support for this hypothesis, research in this area is limited. The purpose of the current study was to conduct the first direct replication of this research while also ruling out depression and self-esteem as alternative explanations for the relationship between SA and social surrogate use. Replicating previous research, participants with higher SA were more likely to recruit and utilize a social surrogate, and less likely to enter social situations without a surrogate present. In addition, these effects could not be attributed to depressive symptoms or self-esteem. Potential implications of social surrogate use are discussed along with directions for future research that would provide valuable information about how and why people with higher SA use this coping mechanism.