Social anxiety, which designates intense fear or anxiety of social situations due to the expectation of negative evaluation, is a relatively common disorder affecting 7-13% of the population (Modini & Abbott, 2016). Given the negative consequences that the disorder has on affected individuals (Matos et al., 2013; Modini & Abbott, 2016), looking for novel methods to ameliorate the symptoms is a societal imperative. 

 

The current study by McCarthy et al. (2025) focuses on the comparison of the current self with previous selves, which, although well-studied in cognitive neuroscience, has not been widely applied as a treatment of clinical and sub-clinical disorders. Nevertheless, comparison with previous selves has been shown to alter cognitive and affective processes and improve current self-evaluation (Broemer et al., 2007; Hanko et al., 2009; Morina, 2021), making it a prime target for handling sub-clinical individuals with social anxiety. The current paper, therefore, investigates whether comparison with previous selves can help individuals with sub-clinical social anxiety in countering their negative affect, which offers valuable clinical and theoretical contributions.

 

The Stage 1 manuscript was evaluated over two rounds of in-depth review. Based on detailed responses to the recommender and reviewers' comments, the recommender judged that the manuscript met the Stage 1 criteria and therefore awarded in-principle acceptance (IPA). 

 

URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/wumdj
 
Level of bias control achieved: Level 6. No part of the data or evidence that will be used to answer the research question yet exists and no part will be generated until after IPA.
 
List of eligible PCI RR-friendly journals:
 

 

 

1. Broemer, P., Grabowski, A., Gebauer, J. E., Ermel, O., & Diehl, M. (2007). How temporal distance from past selves influences self‐perception. European Journal of Social Psychology, 38, 697-714. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.469

 

2. Hanko, K., Crusius, J., & Mussweiler, T. (2009). When I and me are different: assimilation and contrast in temporal self‐comparisons. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40, 160-168. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.625

 

3. Matos, M., Pinto-Gouveia, J., & Gilbert, P. (2013). The effect of shame and shame memories on paranoid ideation and social anxiety. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 20, 334-349. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.1766

 

4. McCarthy, P. A., Morina, N., & Meyer, T. (2025). Cognitive, affective and behavioural effects of temporal comparison with prior aversive experiences in individuals with social anxiety. In principle acceptance of Version 3 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/wumdj

 

5. Modini, M., & Abbott, M. J. (2016). A Comprehensive Review of the Cognitive Determinants of Anxiety and Rumination in Social Anxiety Disorder. Behaviour Change, 33, 150-171. https://doi.org/10.1017/bec.2016.10

 

6. Morina, N. (2021). Comparisons Inform Me Who I Am: A General Comparative-Processing Model of Self-Perception. Perspect Psychol Sci, 16, 1281-1299. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691620966788