Public Self‐Consciousness, Social Anxiety, and Attitudes Toward the Use of Clothing

Abstract

Two studies were conducted to examine the relationships between public self‐consciousness, social anxiety, and clothing variables. Individuals who are high in public self‐consciousness are thought to be aware of themselves as social objects and to be especially concerned with their public self‐presentation. It was therefore predicted that there would be positive relation ships between public self‐consciousness and fashion opinion leadership, clothing interest, clothing conformity, self‐perceived fashionability, and actual fashionability. The self‐evalua tion that accompanies public self‐consciousness is thought to produce social anxiety if the evaluation results in an awareness of discrepancies between the self‐image and a socially defined ideal. It was therefore further predicted that subjects who are high in public self‐ consciousness but have low scores on tests of fashion opinion leadership, clothing interest, clothing conformity, self‐perceived fashionability, and actual fashionability would have relatively high levels of social anxiety. The first prediction was supported in Study 1; results regarding the second prediction were inconclusive. An experiment was subsequently designed to examine the causal sequence involved in the relationships between public self‐conscious ness, clothing, and social anxiety, and this effect was strongest for subjects who were high in public self‐consciousness.

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