Talk:Shyness

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 14 August 2020 and 4 December 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Glory30. Peer reviewers: Kamila.tavarez, PaulaUPRC.

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Untitled
Is this a copyright violation?

Shyness as pathology: ESL conclusion
"In developing this market they may not be alone in the exploitation of such, as many may be wealthy, eccentric, high achievers, often do, and driven by a madness they suffer from an anxiety to succeed."

Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.171.220.20 (talk) 20:25, 16 November 2009 (UTC)
 * cf. the meme "Has Anyone Really Been Far Even as Decided to Use Even Go Want to do Look More Like?". --NicoScribe (talk) 15:17, 25 June 2023 (UTC)

Introversion?
This article should not link to the Introversion article. Such things only serve to perpetuate stereotypes regarding introverted people.

Introversion has nothing to do with shyness, and the vast majority of introverts are not shy.


 * Exactly what I was about to say. Introversion and shyness are completely different things. There are a few sentences in here that say that shyness is a form of introversion, when really it's not. The two are often confused, especially by extroverts, but they aren't the same. BaboonOfTheYard (talk) 22:56, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Shyness is not a temporary state whereas introversion is permanent sort of nature. Everyone is shy at some point of time, that explains all. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.199.124.230 (talk) 10:21, 5 June 2009 (UTC) That makes no sense. You're saying shyness is not temporary, and introverion is not temporary, but you used 'whereas'. And that explains nothing.

External links cleanup
The links here seem to be a little value. We need fewer, higher quality links that are actually useful. However, as soon as I removed one of the worst of the bunch (shyunited forums), it got reverted. We need to do SOMETHING, not just leave it the way it is. Someone else please come up with some suggestions. -- Barrylb 04:02, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

I don't get why the shyunited forum was such a bad useless link. I'm not as familiar with wikipedia as you but I use the forum daily and it has helped me with my shyness talking to others who are also shy. Maybe its not a scientific description of shyness or whatever but it helps. Please give your arguement as to why it should be deleted. Bodhi395 19:20, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

I removed the link to http://www.social-anxiety.com/ as it is just an ad for a $300 CD. ChewyCaligari 21:25, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

Simple English article
Can anyone create a simple English version of the article?--Luke Elms 01:48, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

possible link for this shyness topic
A helpful link for this topic might be

www.socialanxietyassist.com.au Shyness And Social Anxiety Treatment Australia Information on social anxiety, shyness, depression, blushing, sweating, public speaking anxiety and more

Please remove "American culture" and replace with "many cultures"
The statement is untrue, especially in the Midwestern states. This trait is not exclusive to the USA as a whole. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 144.189.5.201 (talk) 16:04, 6 June 2008 (UTC)


 * I found it untrue too, so it's now fixed. Besides, that sentence actually have no references. Please someone put some references, or it will be removed from the article. bladez (talk) 09:02, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Consider adding shyness as perceived in Chinese culture, not just American culture
The statement that American culture tends to favor individualism and looks negatively at shyness is probably true, but the reality of shyness shouldn't be limited solely to how America views the phenomenom. In effect, the article is not about "America and Shyness".

By contrast, Chinese/Asian cultures tend to view shyness in a very favorable light, often considering shy person as having wisdom, individuality and uniqueness of character. Therefore at the very least, I suggest including this contrasting cultural view on shyness for a more balanced approach. (Ronsword (talk) 22:19, 27 July 2008 (UTC))

Consider removing 'forgiveness' reference
I suggest removing the statement "in more forgiving arenas" as a counter reference to the first statement "in some cultures". While some cultures do, indeed, look down on shyness as a behavior (and not necessarily on shy people, per se), other cultures look up to those who are shy; the latter are not necessarily 'forgiving' of shy people and in fact, may represent a different cultural paradigm which holds shy people in high esteem. Regards, (Ronsword (talk) 16:38, 9 August 2008 (UTC))

Is this supposed to be an English sentence?
"So we might recognize as individuals, these elements in our personality, as a withdrawal from our public, the people we know, who might judge us, in fact they may be judging themselves, because they may suffer from the same." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.101.43.45 (talk) 01:25, 19 August 2009 (UTC) If you read it several times, it makes sense, but that's definitely an opinion, and does not belong in an encyclopedia article (since it's not a quote, anyways.)

Shyness FAQ as source of research
This article appears to have used the "Internet Shyness FAQ" (formerly the alt.support.shyness FAQ) http://www.shyFAQ.com as a source of research, based on the fact that it uses at least one unique phrase "crippling physical manifestations of uneasiness" directly from the FAQ. The use of the phrase in the alt.support.shyness FAQ goes back over ten years so it predates the use in this Wikipedia entry or elsewhere online. Therefore, it seems only fair to include a link to http://www.shyFAQ.com as a reference. TimMagic (talk) 15:31, 30 July 2011 (UTC)TimMagic

Hope, Jenny (2012) article
The following, from the Shyness as pathology section, looks like a plausible reference to a serious, interesting and relevant article about the medicalisation of shyness, but is hopelessly garbled. Where's the full reference to the article? Is it by one author (Jenny Hope) or two (surnames Hope and Jenny) – and, either way, why is the author (singular) then referred to as "he"? The first quote is meaningless out of context: is it meant to be the author's own view of a reasonable medical diagnosis, or (as I suspect) the author's prediction of the extremes to which the current tendency to medicalise shyness might lead? In the second quote, is the date 1940 actually an error for 1840, which seems much more likely? The messing up of quotation marks makes it unclear whether the Peter Kinderman quote is from the same article or not: if it isn't, what's the source for that? If anyone has access to the article, could they sort this out.


 * In a recent article by Hope, Jenny (2012) "shyness in a child could be classed as mental illness", the author mentions that "back in 1940 the census of the United States included just one category for mental disorder. By 1917 the American Psychiatric Association recognized 59, rising to 129 in 1959, 227 in 1980, and 347 in the last revision". He continues by saying "there is a real danger that shyness will become social phobia, bookish kids labelled as Asperger's and so on.'Peter Kinderman, head of the Institute of Psychology, University of Liverpool, said: 'It will exacerbate problems that result from trying to fit a medical, diagnostic, system to problems that just don't fit nicely into those boxes.

Thanks. GrindtXX (talk) 16:51, 27 August 2012 (UTC)


 * Found it. It's a rather sensationalist piece in the Daily Mail – here for anyone who's interested – and I don't think worth citing. I've deleted the paragraph. GrindtXX (talk) 19:08, 28 August 2012 (UTC)

Miller, Scott (2009) study
This study is explaining the correlation between gender, shyness, and social acceptance. This study assessed two hundred and thirty-one youths shyness and social acceptance at two separate times; one year apart. The study analyzed both male and female youths by assigning them professional tests but for this article I will only discuss the shyness one. Teachers were told to use the "Shyness subscale of the Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire" (Capaldi and Rothbart 1992). This study had a specific emphasis on social situations. Questions tapped the youth's general shyness, quietness and lack of social initiative. Data from this showed a majority of .92 for reports of shyness. It is also noteworthy that boys were rated by teachers as being more shy than girls in the present study. - I'm not sure if everyone will be able to access this file because you need to first purchase a license, which King's has so if anyone needs to relate to it I can put it up somewhere? Not sure how to exactly cite properly as well if someone could help me with this? - Also I would say that with this information we could start a new sub-heading stating "Shyness in adolescents". Srovithi (talk) 02:17, 31 October 2012 (UTC)

Psychology 2410A at King's
―I have decided to edit this article for Psych 2410A at King’s 2012‖ Dsmit89 (talk) 21:04, 19 September 2012 (UTC)Dsmit89

―I have decided to edit this article for Psych 2410A at King’s 2012‖ Srovithi (talk) 17:36, 20 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Welcome to both of you!  Lova Falk     talk   18:52, 20 September 2012 (UTC)

I have decided to edit this article for Psych 2410A at King’s 2012‖ LannyFisher (talk) 04:20, 21 September 2012 (UTC)

Proposed Improvements
- Remove unsure language in order to make the article sound more absolute.

- There are many uncited facts displayed in the article, I plan to either remove them or find evidence that supports the facts.

- I plan to introduce and display the results of a study done correlating the symptons of illness in children and shyness.

- I plan to reference the work done on the difference in individual shyness in infants in this paper: Daniels, Denise., & Plomin, Robert. (1985). Origins of Individual Differences in Infant Shyness. Developmental Psychology

Dsmit89 (talk) 20:41, 30 September 2012 (UTC)Dsmit89 behind the lines to start a new line.
 * Hi Dsmit89! If you put spaces in front of the lines, wikipedia text starts to look funny. Instead you can put
 * And another comment: take care when removing "unsure" language - this should be in accordance with the source. So, if the source says: "A seems to be somewhat associated with B", you cannot just change this into "A is associated with B". Thank you!  Lova Falk     talk   09:16, 2 October 2012 (UTC)

I intend to improve this article in the following ways: -I will be referring to an empirical study on day length during pregnancy in Northern and Southern hemispheres as a predictor for shyness in children. Stephen L. Gortmaker; Jerome Kagan; Avshalom Caspi; Phil A. Silva. (1997). Daylength during pregnancy and shyness in children: Results from Northern and Southern hemispheres. Developmental Psychobiology. -I will also be referring to an empirical cross-cultural study on the contrast of attitudes toward shyness in individualistic and collectivist societies. Aizawa, Yuki; Whatley, Mark A. (2006). Gender, Shyness, and Individualism-Collectivism: A Cross-Cultural Study. Race, Gender and Class. It is hoped that this will encourage further improvements that will attempt to mitigate systematic bias in the Wiki article. -I will attempt to assign proper citations to those areas in need, by using Western University's research resources to find peer-reviewed, empirical articles that back up the claims in the Wikipedia article. If I am able to determine with reasonable certainty that any of the un-cited claims are inaccurate, I will remove such claims. LannyFisher (talk) 02:09, 4 October 2012 (UTC) Three steps I am taking to improve this article: - I will attempt to improve the articles grammar and citations, basically the overall finished product. - I will be referring to an empirical journal related to shyness in young children. Miller, Scott R. Mothers’ and Fathers’ Responsive Problem Solving with Early Adolescents: Do Gender, Shyness, and Social Acceptance Make a Difference? (2009). - I will attempt to use information learned throughout my class, readings, articles and personal experience to help edit, cite, and help make the article overall presentable to my class, professor, and the Wikipedia community. Srovithi (talk) 04:31, 4 October 2012 (UTC)

Shyness and illness

 * I am afraid that I had to remove a large body of text involving a single study on shyness and illness. Wikipedia has guidelines and policies regarding the use of primary sources, see WP:PSTS. Also, see WP:UNDUE. Finally, it is a WP:COI to mention the names of people known to you. Instead, use scientific review articles to build and improve Wikipedia. Best to stick to researchers in the field who are "big names"; the way to tell that is if they have a Wikipedia article themselves. Speciate (talk) 02:27, 25 October 2012 (UTC)
 * I have re-entered the large body of text involving the single study on shyness and illness because APS is recommending the addition of this kind of material to Wikipedia because it is far better than the kinds of sources they typically want. Dsmit89 (talk) 00:17, 30 October 2012 (UTC)Dsmit89
 * However, this one study gets way too much space in this article. This is not a scientific article, or a studybook in which it can be appropriate to give a detailed description of a study, this is an encyclopedic article on shyness and we should be concise. Please Dsmit89, summarize the section!  Lova Falk     talk   12:45, 8 November 2012 (UTC)
 * I can only endorse what Speciate and Lova Falk have said: this article may well be worth a mention, but its principal findings need to be summarized in no more than a single sentence or two, within the context of the wider discussion. In addition, please cite it fully: you have given the authors, title and year, but you have only mentioned that it is in the Canadian Journal of Behaviour Science in the body of the text – that information should be in the citation – and you should also provide a volume number and page numbers. All these details may be required by anyone wishing to follow it up and consult the full article, which is one of the purposes of providing references. In fact, you should probably add the full reference to the Bibliography at the foot of the article. GrindtXX (talk) 02:30, 9 November 2012 (UTC)

Society defines "normal." Shyness was a term not coined or considered an illness until the 1960s.

Jump up ^ 1966-, Lane, Christopher, (2007). Shyness : how normal behavior became a sickness. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300124460. OCLC 154689037. Elp3h.emily.powell (talk) 02:35, 29 September 2018 (UTC)--Elp3h.emily.powell (talk) 02:35, 29 September 2018 (UTC)

Gender, Shyness and Social Acceptance: An empirical study
The same things that were said about "Shyness and illness" can be said about "Gender, Shyness and Social Acceptance". Only really special and seminal studies, that have made a major contribution to the development of the scientific knowledge about a subject should be cited here. Please summarize. Lova Falk    talk   12:55, 8 November 2012 (UTC)


 * Again agreed: please summarize much more succinctly, and please cite the source in full. Here you have sourced the article only to Springer Science+Business Media, who are the publishers of multiple journals: it could prove extremely difficult for someone to track down the full article. The publisher is unimportant: the journal title is essential (as are volume and page numbers). GrindtXX (talk) 02:39, 9 November 2012 (UTC)

Empirical studies
Today I removed two more empirical studies. Do I understand correctly that adding an empirical study is part of their assignment on Wikipedia? In that case, it is a real problem, because Wikipedia is not the right place to describe empirical studies. This is an encyclopedia! It should describe accepted knowledge, preferably from secondary sources! I find it a very frustrating situation, first for the students to see their work removed, and also for us, who need to clean up several articles. Lova Falk    talk   09:01, 24 November 2012 (UTC)
 * PS We have a discussion about this at User talk:Pauljosephconway/Psychology 2410A at King's  Lova Falk     talk   10:47, 25 November 2012 (UTC)

Are shy people really perceived as being less intelligent?
Okay, this is the the first time I EVER that I've heard the claim that shy people are perceived as being less intelligent. Usually a hear the exact opposite, shy people are perceived as being more intelligent, and a quick search on google appears to confirm that for at least people on the internet. I think something about that should be adressed in the article, maybe it's just that everyone on the internet is an introvert, but that section is from an extrovert perspective, I don't know. Anyway, if the perception that shy people are perceived as less intelligent is brought up than equally the perception that shy people are more intelligent should als be brought up as it's also culturally prevalent to a significant degree. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 139.228.108.125 (talk) 16:24, 6 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Thank you for your comment! The section Intelligence actually says "data collected leans toward a positive rather than negative correlation between intelligence and shyness, though it isn't statistically significant." However, there were also a couple of unsourced statements about the stereotype of less intelligence, so I put "citation needed"-tags behind these sentences. They are really ugly, so I hope someone will provide the source.  Lova Falk     talk   16:07, 7 February 2013 (UTC)

Modifying through APS Initiative
I am a Senior in Clemson University's Psychology program.This semester for my Psychology Laboratory we are modifying articles in order to bump them to featured article status. My goal for this article is to add additional citations and give the article a more worldwide view. I also want to delete the part on mercury poisoning, seeing as I feel this has nothing to do with the article. Csing (talk) 15:13, 21 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Welcome! Please remember that Wikipedia is not an academic paper or essay! Wikipedia articles should not be based on WP:primary sources, but on reliable, published secondary sources (for instance, journal reviews and professional or advanced academic textbooks) and, to a lesser extent, on tertiary sources (such as undergraduate textbooks). WP:MEDRS describes how to identify reliable sources for medical information, which is a good guideline for many psychology articles as well.


 * About your plans to delete the section on mercury poisoning, this is actually sourced content. So I would recommend you not to just delete it but start a discussion about deleting it here on this talk page. You can check in history who are major contributors to this article and invite them to participate in the discussion. With friendly regards,  Lova Falk     talk   16:29, 23 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Thank you. I understand about not deleting or adding content, my professor wanted us to just write on the talk page of the article we are planning to modify just so we can get feedback. I am using my sandbox to make the changes. Csing (talk) 17:52, 23 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Hi Csing! Using your sandbox is a good idea, as long as you discuss important changes here. Have fun editing!  Lova Falk     talk   18:19, 23 February 2013 (UTC)
 * I have added another study and examples of different cultural views on shyness along with a section on inhibition (because it goes along with shyness). I have not changed anything to the original article. If you all wont mind looking at my sandbox and telling me what you think (edits are in red). Thank you any help is appreciated.Csing (talk) 22:19, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

Hi Csing and thank you for your invitation.
 * I wonder, after writing about primary sources and (as far as I know) your prof also telling not to use them, why you added two primary sources to a section that already had one. The description of study two is way too long - in scientific articles, such a description can be relevant, but in an encyclopedia, we are concerned with what is known about shyness and not with how the scientists conducted the study. When it comes to the final sentence "In conclusion, these two theories believe that the situations presented to Chinese and Korean children are viewed as more unpredictable and fearful than those of Australian, Canadian and Italian children" - this sentence is difficult to understand and does not clarify very much about how shyness differs across cultures. All in all, it would be much better if you could find a review. However, if you cannot find any review, in the introduction of an article and in the Discussion at the end, authors usually discuss other studies, and they relate their results to others' results, maybe you can find useful information there.
 * When it comes to study three, it is not at all clear to me why you mention just this study, apart from it being Turkish. There might not exist a review of studies comparing shyness between cultures, but I cannot believe there are no reviews of worldwide studies about the relationship between fear of negative evaluation, self-esteem, interpersonal rejection and shyness. There is no reason at all to have this one particular study here and not any other one.


 * Subsection "Perceptions of Eastern cultures on shyness" and a large part of subsection "Perceptions of Western cultures on shyness" are unsourced and need a source. And why is the Chen study of Chinese children in the Western culture subsection?


 * Please don't use "you" - not encyclopedic!
 * This is not a good source. Author is unknown, the text is not reviewed. However, they state their sources, so the site can help you find good sources you can use instead.

With friendly regards! Lova Falk    talk   18:30, 2 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Thank you again, you'r feedback is very helpful. I am changing (adding/deleting) things as I work. Thank you for the cookie. :) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Csing (talk • contribs) 14:39, 7 March 2013 (UTC)

Things added
I have added sections on:

- social and behavioral inhibition

- low birthrates in relation to shyness

- Perception of Eastern and Western cultures on shyness-inhibition and

- examples of different cultural views

These changes have been approved by my professor Csing (talk) 14:38, 28 March 2013 (UTC)

Removed Garrison Keillor reference
I removed this because Keillor self reports as shy but does not show any of the symptoms. If anything Keillor shows more signs of being a psychopath, he just says that he is shy to be manipulative. Also Keillor is not an expert in the field of psychology so what he says does not matter. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.103.132.149 (talk) 16:38, 13 September 2013 (UTC)

Origins of shyness
There are some biological origins of shyness but there is no part with psychological origins of shyness (with title). I think this is unbalanced. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.41.224.172 (talk) 16:49, 10 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Hi 178.41.224.172! If you have good, secondary sources – and please also check WP:MEDRS – then please be bold and write a section about it! With friendly regards,  Lova Falk     talk   17:18, 28 December 2013 (UTC)

Different cultural views - 'Western culture' vs. 'Eastern culture' too great a generalisation?
Does anybody else think that the section examining shyness as perceived in Western cultures vs. perception in Eastern cultures is too general?

Perhaps it's that the very notion of a singular Western culture and singular Eastern culture is flawed, but - to me at least - stating that in Western culture shyness is perceived as negative, whilst in Eastern culture it is perceived as being positive, sounds like a broad and frankly unhelpful generalisation. I find it pretty questionable.

For one thing, the section references the text The Development of Shyness and Social Withdrawal by Kenneth H. Rubin, Robert J. Coplan, which uses as its own reference for all of 'Western culture' North America. Surely there would be variation between Western European, Southern European, Eastern European and North American cultural perception of shyness? So how can a study of North America be used as a representation of all 'Western' civilisation? Similarly, the text uses a study of traditional China to represent all 'Eastern' civilisation - do we not think shyness would be perceived differently in Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, Afghanistan, India, Iran etc.?

I think an edit of this section would be appropriate to reflect a less bilateral view (East vs. West). 77.99.12.140 (talk) 23:19, 3 May 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 2 one external links on Shyness. Please take a moment to review my edit. You may add after the link to keep me from modifying it, if I keep adding bad data, but formatting bugs should be reported instead. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether, but should be used as a last resort. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20050204030941/http://www.shyness.com:80/encyclopedia.html to http://www.shyness.com/encyclopedia.html
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20060520120531/http://asp.cumc.columbia.edu:80/SAD/ to http://asp.cumc.columbia.edu/SAD/

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Citation needed
In the first paragraph, we read the sentence "The primary characteristic of shyness is a largely ego-driven fear of what other people will think of a person's behaviour". This is merely a popular belief about shyness, and no citation is given for any empiricial evidence to support this claim. Vorbee (talk) 16:30, 12 June 2018 (UTC)

It's the definition of the word. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.200.80.23 (talk) 18:17, 4 December 2020 (UTC)

Link with intelligence
The source cited to support that intelligence and shyness aren't correlated explicitly defines "shy" as something completely different from the actual meaning right from the start, so it's invalid. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.200.80.23 (talk) 06:42, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

Shyness in infants
This article is written from the point of view of shyness as a personality trait. Nevertheless, in normal English it is also used to characterise the behaviour of infant children in the presence of strangers. I've added a link to [Stranger anxiety] at the disambiguation page but I really think that there should be a direct link from the top of this page. Psychological usage is fine, but some help should be given to people who are looking for 'shyness' in one of its ordinary English senses and not just in the narrower psychological sense.

Bathrobe (talk) 01:05, 1 May 2021 (UTC)