Mental or behavioral acts that reduce anxiety in social situations, such as avoiding eye contact or rehearsing sentences before speaking, are called

• A. Safety behaviors
• B. Coping mechanisms
• C. Exposure strategies
• D. Social rituals

Answer: (A)

Safety behaviors are mental or behavioral acts people use to lessen anxiety in social situations. Examples like avoiding eye contact or rehearsing sentences before speaking are classic safety behaviors: they lower distress in the moment, but they also prevent disconfirming experiences (you don’t actually test whether you’ll be rejected or how your interactions go), so the underlying fear tends to persist. This is why they’re a distinct concept in social anxiety—actions chosen specifically to reduce threat in social encounters. In contrast, coping mechanisms is a broad, non-specific label for strategies to handle stress; exposure strategies are deliberate therapeutic steps to gradually face feared situations; and social rituals describe general social patterns, not a clinical term for anxiety-reducing actions.