A Randomized Trial of Brief Online Interventions to Facilitate Treatment Seeking for Social Anxiety.
A 10-minute online mix of facts and ACT-style motivation pushes most socially anxious adults to seek help.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers built two 10-minute online sessions for adults with social anxiety.
One session gave plain facts about social anxiety and treatment.
The other added short MI/ACT-style motivational clips.
Adults were picked at random to try one version.
The team later checked who actually looked for therapy.
What they found
Both tiny modules helped people feel better about getting help.
The group that saw the MI/ACT clips did even better.
Seven out of ten of them took real steps toward treatment.
How this fits with other research
Higgins et al. (2021) ran a similar online ACT trial.
They also saw gains, but they tested full ACT lessons instead of a 10-minute booster.
The new study shows you can get a big lift with far less time.
Dutt et al. (2023) found live staff training beat web lessons for teacher skill.
Here, the web lesson won because the goal was simple: spark action, not teach deep skill.
Together the papers say online works when the target is motivation, but hands-on still helps for complex training.
Why it matters
You can email a 10-minute link and turn avoidance into action.
Add a short values clip or choice-based prompt to your intake page.
One click may do what a one-hour orientation used to do.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This study developed and evaluated a brief, single-session online intervention designed to facilitate treatment seeking among adults with clinically significant social anxiety (SA) symptoms, who generally seek treatment at exceptionally low rates. Adults (N = 267) reporting significant SA symptoms were recruited online and randomized to a brief, single-session online intervention: Education consisted of brief psychoeducation and treatment resources, or Education+Motivation which added treatment seeking-focused motivational content adapted from Motivational Interviewing and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Attitudes, intentions, perceived control, and treatment seeking were assessed at Pre, Post, and 1-month follow-up (FU). Both interventions were feasible (90% completion) and improved all outcomes. At FU, 70% reported engaging in one or more SA treatment-seeking behaviors. Education+Motivation was more effective than Education at improving treatment-seeking attitudes and behaviors. A brief online intervention with educational and motivational content is a promising direction for promoting treatment seeking for adults with SA symptoms.
Behavior modification, 2022 · doi:10.1177/01454455211040051