Andrew Huberman with Dr. Nick Epley
Social anxiety is often fueled by a prediction error: we underestimate how much strangers are willing to connect with us, and how positively they may respond when we reach out.
In the cited daily survey, spending an entire day alone was associated with substantially lower reported well-being than days with social contact.
We consistently underestimate how positively others will respond to friendly interaction, leading to self-imposed isolation based on false expectations.
Real-world exposure can help reduce social anxiety by proving pessimistic expectations of rejection wrong, rather than only teaching us to tolerate fear.