Originally published 2017-10-17.
Are people with social anxiety more empathetic or more intelligent? The honest answer is: partly, sometimes, and not in the way viral headlines suggest. A few small studies have found that socially anxious people can be unusually good at reading other people's emotions, but the research on intelligence points mainly to worry, not to social anxiety itself. And none of it means anxiety is a hidden gift that everyone who struggles should feel grateful for.
This topic first reached our pages through a personal essay by a writer living with diagnosed social anxiety, who described feeling stung by headlines that seemed to treat people like her as broken. Her instinct, that anxiety says nothing bad about a person's character, is right. Below we look at what social anxiety is, what the empathy and intelligence studies actually found and what genuinely helps.
What social anxiety is, and how common it is
Social anxiety disorder is more than shyness. It is an intense, persistent fear of being watched, judged or embarrassed in social situations, strong enough that people avoid those situations or endure them with real distress. Under the DSM-5 criteria used by clinicians, the fear has to be out of proportion to the situation, last six months or more and interfere significantly with work, study or relationships.
It is one of the most common mental health conditions. Large US surveys have found that roughly 7% of adults experience it in a given year and more than one in ten at some point in their lives. It usually begins in childhood or adolescence, with most cases starting by age 20, and it is diagnosed more often in women than in men.
Living with it can make ordinary tasks, such as making a phone call, speaking up in a meeting or eating in front of others, feel exhausting. That daily effort is part of why so many people go looking for a more hopeful way to understand their condition.
Stigma, spirituality and the headlines that hurt
The original essay began with a complaint about how a 2013 study was covered. Researchers led by Michael King at University College London surveyed more than 7,000 people in England and reported that those who described themselves as spiritual but not religious were more likely to have certain mental health problems. One British tabloid summed this up with a headline suggesting that spiritual people were more likely to be mentally ill but at least thought life had more meaning.
The writer, who is spiritual and leans on her faith to cope with anxiety, found the tone dismissive, and many readers would agree. A survey can show an association between two things without showing that one causes the other. People going through mental distress may also be more likely to search for meaning, which says nothing negative about either group. Headlines that mock people for their mental health add to the stigma that keeps many from seeking help.
Is social anxiety linked to empathy?
This is the part of the claim with the most support, though it rests on small studies. In 2011, Yasmin Tibi-Elhanany and Simone Shamay-Tsoory of the University of Haifa compared 21 students with high social anxiety and 22 with low social anxiety. The highly anxious group was more accurate at working out other people's emotional states, the skill psychologists call affective mentalizing, though less accurate on parallel tasks about thoughts and beliefs. The authors called it the first evidence for increased empathic abilities in social anxiety, while stressing that larger and clinical samples were needed.
A 2024 study in Cognition and Emotion by Saif Kade and colleagues found something similar: under social threat, adults with elevated social anxiety showed higher cognitive empathy, meaning they tracked others' emotions more closely. But the researchers described this as "aberrant" and possibly unhelpful. Constantly scanning faces for signs of disapproval is tiring, and it can feed the cycle of anxiety rather than ease it.
So a fair summary is that many socially anxious people are highly tuned in to others' feelings. That sensitivity can make them caring friends, but it is closely bound up with the fear of judgement itself.
Does anxiety mean higher intelligence?
The essay cited two studies as showing a strong link between social anxiety and high intelligence. Neither quite says that.
The Lakehead University study, by Alexander Penney, Victoria Miedema and Dwight Mazmanian, was published in Personality and Individual Differences in 2015 and tested 126 undergraduates. Higher verbal intelligence predicted more worry and rumination. But the researchers found no relationship between social anxiety symptoms and either verbal or non-verbal intelligence. Higher non-verbal intelligence was in fact linked to less post-event processing, the habit of replaying social encounters afterwards that is typical of social anxiety.
The other study, from SUNY Downstate Medical Center and led by psychiatrist Jeremy Coplan, was reported in 2012 as showing that worry reflects a higher IQ. It was a small study of people with generalised anxiety disorder, a different condition, and its findings for healthy volunteers pointed the other way. It is an interesting clue about how worry and reasoning may be connected, not proof that anxious people are smarter.
Anxiety as an alarm system
The essay also argued that anxiety evolved to protect us and our loved ones. Psychologists broadly agree that fear and anxiety are normal alarm responses that helped our ancestors avoid danger, including the danger of being rejected by the group. In an anxiety disorder, that alarm goes off too easily and too loudly.
The writer pointed to Israeli research, from Tsachi Ein-Dor and colleagues, suggesting that anxious people are quicker to notice threats and warn others. Those studies measured attachment anxiety, a worry about closeness and rejection in relationships, rather than social anxiety disorder, though the two can overlap. The idea that anxious vigilance can sometimes help a group is plausible, but it does not turn a disorder into an advantage.
The essay ended with a line by the writer Jennifer Elisabeth about having "that kind of intoxicating insanity that lets other people dream outside of the lines." It captures the spirit of the piece well: being different is not the same as being defective.
What actually helps with social anxiety
You do not need to be secretly gifted to deserve support. Social anxiety disorder is highly treatable, and these approaches have the strongest evidence:
- Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). The first-line treatment, especially one-to-one. It helps people test anxious predictions and gradually face feared situations.
- Other talking therapies. Acceptance and commitment therapy and metacognitive therapy also have good results.
- Medication. Some antidepressants can help, particularly alongside therapy. Whether medication is right for you is a conversation to have with a doctor.
- Everyday supports. Regular exercise, sleep, slow breathing and mindfulness practice can take the edge off anxiety, though they work best as part of a wider plan rather than instead of treatment.
If social anxiety is shrinking your life, talk to a doctor or a mental health professional. Your sensitivity to others may well be one of your strengths. Getting help does not mean giving that up; it means the fear no longer gets to decide where you can go and who you can meet.
Sources: Tibi-Elhanany and Shamay-Tsoory, Israel Journal of Psychiatry, 2011; Kade et al., Cognition and Emotion, 2024; Penney, Miedema and Mazmanian, 2015; Wikipedia: Social anxiety disorder; I Heart Intelligence (original essay).
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