Social anxiety test score: what your SPIN result means

A Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN) score runs from 0 to 68: 0 to 18 means “Mostly at ease”, and 19 or more means “Worth a closer look”. The cut-off of 19 best separated people with social anxiety disorder from people without it in the original study. It’s a screening score, not a diagnosis.

Sprout uses the SPIN and also shows three part scores: fear, avoidance and physical signs. These often say more about your week than the total does.

What is a high social anxiety score on the SPIN?

A score of 19 or more is high enough to be worth a closer look. In the original study, Connor and colleagues found that 19 was the point that best told apart people who had been diagnosed with social anxiety disorder from people who hadn’t. The best cut-off can differ from one group of people to another, so 19 is a guide rather than a hard line.

0 to 18: mostly at ease

In the past week, social situations didn’t cause you much fear or lead you to avoid things much. Feeling nervous before a speech or when meeting new people is very common, and at this level it isn’t getting in your way a lot. If one particular situation still bothers you, it can help to notice it and take small, gentle steps towards it.

19 to 39: social situations have been making you quite anxious

Fear of being judged, embarrassed or watched seems to have been bothering you quite a bit, and you may have avoided some situations because of it. Physical signs like blushing, sweating or a racing heart can make it feel even harder. Social fears like these are very common and respond well to support, and small, steady steps towards the situations you avoid help too.

40 to 68: fear around other people has been weighing on you a lot

Fear of people and of being judged seems to have been bothering you a lot, and avoiding social situations may be shaping much of your days. That can be tiring and lonely. A score this high can’t tell you whether you have social anxiety disorder, but fear at this level is worth talking about with a professional. It responds well to the right support.

What is the SPIN, and who made it?

The Social Phobia Inventory is a 17-statement questionnaire developed by Kathryn Connor, Jonathan Davidson and colleagues at Duke University and published in the British Journal of Psychiatry in 2000. “Social phobia” is the older name for social anxiety disorder, which is why it appears in the title.

It was built to cover three sides of social anxiety that people often experience separately: the fear itself (of people in charge, of parties, of being criticised or embarrassed), the avoiding that follows from it, and the physical signs that make it feel so visible, such as blushing, sweating, trembling and a pounding heart. Each statement asks how much something bothered you during the past week.

If you haven’t taken it, the social anxiety test uses the SPIN and takes about five minutes. Taking the test is free; results need Sprout Plus (7 days free).

How is a SPIN score added up?

Every statement is answered on the same five-point scale, and the numbers are simply added together:

• Not at all: 0
• A little bit: 1
• Somewhat: 2
• Very much: 3
• Extremely: 4

Seventeen statements at up to 4 points each give a total from 0 to 68. There are no reversed items and no weighting, so a higher total always means social fears bothered you more.

The same answers also make three smaller scores. Using the statement numbers on the standard form:

On Sprout, the three part scores appear under More detail, below the overall result.

What do your fear, avoidance and physical scores say?

The three part scores show where the difficulty sits. Each one is described in thirds of its range, so you can see whether it bothered you little, some or a lot:

These thirds are a plain way of reading the parts, not cut-offs from the original paper, which only set one for the total. Some common shapes:

High fear, low avoidance

You feel the fear but go anyway: to the meeting, the party, the presentation. This often belongs to people who seem confident from the outside and are exhausted on the inside. It can come with a lot of preparation, rehearsing and checking afterwards. The post on anxiety that looks like coping describes the pattern.

High avoidance, lower fear

This can look puzzling: if you aren’t very afraid, why avoid so much? Often the avoiding is what keeps the fear low. If you’ve turned down most invitations this week, there was little to be scared of. Avoidance brings relief in the moment and makes the fear harder to shift over time, because you never get to find out that the situation would have been manageable.

High physical signs

Blushing, sweating, shaking and a pounding heart feel very visible from the inside. Research by Thomas Gilovich and colleagues found that people tend to overestimate how much others notice about them, which they called the spotlight effect, and related studies by the same group found people also overestimate how visible their nervousness is. Slow breathing before and during a social situation can take the edge off; the guided breathing practice takes a couple of minutes.

All three high

Fear, avoiding and physical alarm are feeding each other. This is the pattern most worth talking to a professional about, because each part keeps the others going, and help with one usually eases the rest.

Is it shyness or social anxiety?

Shyness and social anxiety sit on the same scale, and the difference is mostly about how much it costs you. Many people feel shy with strangers or nervous before speaking up. Social anxiety tends to mean the fear is strong or lasting enough to cause real distress, or to keep you from things you want or need to do.

Your own numbers can help you think about which side you’re on:

• Low avoidance? If you feel nervous but still do what you want to do, that leans towards ordinary shyness or nerves.
• Middle or top third? If fear is deciding which jobs you apply for, whether you see friends or whether you speak in class, that leans towards social anxiety.
• How long has it been like this? One anxious week after a new job is different from years of the same pattern.

It’s also worth separating social anxiety from introversion. Introverts prefer quieter settings and need time alone to recharge, but they aren’t necessarily afraid of being judged. You can be an outgoing person with strong social fear, or a quiet person with none. In the Big Five traits, introversion is a personality trait rather than a problem.

Does a SPIN score of 19 or more mean social anxiety disorder?

Not necessarily. A score of 19 or more means your answers reached the level linked with social anxiety in the original research, but only a professional can assess social anxiety disorder. A questionnaire can’t tell how long things have been this way, what else might be going on, or how much it affects your life.

When a doctor or therapist assesses social anxiety, they look at things like:

• How long it’s lasted. The DSM-5 description of social anxiety disorder involves fear that typically lasts six months or more. The SPIN asks only about one week.
• How much it gets in the way. Work, study, friendships, relationships and everyday tasks like phoning or shopping all count.
• What the fear is about. Fear of being judged or embarrassed is different from fear of having a panic attack in public, or discomfort around people that comes from something else.
• Other explanations. Low mood, autism, a recent painful experience or some physical health problems can all make social situations harder in different ways.

Treat a high score as a reason for a conversation, not a label.

Why might your score be lower than your struggle?

A SPIN score can look low because it only covers the past week, including the situations you avoided. If you spent the week working from home, cancelling plans and letting calls go to voicemail, many of the statements won’t have bothered you much, and the score can come out lower than the problem really is.

Some other reasons a score may look low: you answered for your calmest moments rather than the week as a whole; you’re so used to the fear that it feels normal; or the anxiety mainly shows up afterwards, in the hours of going back over what you said. That last one is common enough to have its own name, post-event processing, and the post on replaying conversations afterwards explains it.

If your score seems low compared with the difficulty you’re having, describe that difficulty. It’s still worth talking to someone.

What keeps social anxiety going?

Turning attention inwards, using safety behaviours and replaying events afterwards can keep social anxiety going. Psychologists David Clark and Adrian Wells described this cycle in their 1995 model:

• Turning attention inwards. In a social situation, attention goes to how you seem: your face, your voice, your hands. You end up watching yourself instead of the conversation, and your inner sense of how awkward you look feels like proof.
• Safety behaviours. Small things done to avoid embarrassment, like rehearsing sentences, avoiding eye contact, holding a glass to hide shaking or staying near the door. They feel protective, but they can make you seem less relaxed and stop you learning that you’d have been fine without them.
• Going over it afterwards. Replaying the conversation, remembering the awkward moment and forgetting the ordinary ones, so the next event feels even riskier.

The same cycle shows up in smaller everyday ways too, such as putting off replying to messages because each one feels like a test. That can also lead to dreading opening messages.

What helps social fears ease?

Social anxiety is one of the more treatable anxiety problems. In the UK, NICE guidance recommends individual cognitive behavioural therapy, specifically developed for social anxiety, as the first treatment for adults. It usually works on the cycle above: noticing where attention goes, dropping safety behaviours, and testing feared situations step by step.

Some things you can start on your own:

• Pick one small step. Something slightly uncomfortable but doable, like asking a shop assistant a question or saying one thing in a meeting. Repeat it until it feels easier, then pick the next one.
• Drop one safety behaviour. Try a conversation without rehearsing, or with eye contact, and see what actually happens.
• Put attention outwards. Get curious about what the other person is saying. It’s hard to watch yourself and listen properly at the same time.
• Limit the replay. When you notice yourself going back over an event, name it and turn to something else, rather than searching for what went wrong.
• Calm the body first. Slow breathing with a longer out-breath before you walk in can lower the physical signs that feed the fear.

If your score was 19 or more, or social fear is shaping your choices, talk to a doctor. You can say: “I did the Social Phobia Inventory and scored 34. Social situations have been getting harder and I’m avoiding a lot.” That’s enough to start, and a doctor can explain the treatment options available to you.

Is there a shorter version of the SPIN?

Yes. The Mini-SPIN uses three of the 17 statements: fear of embarrassment causing avoidance, avoiding being the centre of attention, and embarrassment or looking stupid being among your worst fears. Connor and colleagues published it in 2001 as a very quick screen, with a score of 6 or more out of 12 suggesting a fuller check. It’s useful in a busy clinic, but the full SPIN tells you far more, including the three part scores.

How often should you retake the SPIN?

Every two weeks is a sensible rhythm if you’re working on social fears, because the questions cover one week and the score can shift with what that week held. The trend matters more than any one result. A total that drifts down while you take small steps is a sign the steps are working, even if it stays above 19 for a while. Watch the avoidance score in particular: when it falls, life usually starts to feel bigger.

What should you focus on in your SPIN result?

Under 19, social situations don’t seem to be holding you back much right now. From 19 up, social fear has been bothering you enough to be worth a closer look, and from 40 up it has been weighing on you a lot. Whatever the total, look at the three parts to see whether fear, avoidance or physical nerves is doing most of the work, and remember that only a professional can tell you whether it’s social anxiety disorder.

If you’d like to see your own numbers, or check again in a couple of weeks, you can take the 17-question SPIN check in about five minutes.