Data, observation, results

Being introduced to other people
Being teased or criticized
Being the center of attention
Being watched or observed while doing something
Having to speak in public
Meeting people in authority
Attending parties or other social gatherings
Becoming embarrassed
Meeting other people’s eyes

An investigation to substantiate the hypothesis that females are more prone to social phobia than males was done by the means of an online survey. According to the results of the survey, the average percentage of social phobia in males was 39.2% and the average percentage of social phobia in females was 60.7%. The percentage of social phobia was evidently higher in females by (21.5%) than in males. This validates the hypothesis made. The reason for social phobia being more apparent in females could be due to the fact the females are unmistakably more self-conscious about their physical appearance and the image that people perceive them than their male counterparts. Therefore, they are more susceptible to feel uncomfortable in the presence of others. Cultural influences also play a part.

Public speaking was found to be the most common fear, with 95/120 people (79.1%) of the people acknowledging that they possessed this phobia. The people who were selected using stratified sampling also generally recognized being watched or observed while doing something as one of their phobias. Public speaking was the second most common, with 92/120 people (76.6%) possessing it. Thus, it can be inferred that people generally feel more uncomfortable when attention from a large audience is fixed on them.

Improvements could be made for the research to be conducted more successfully. This includes improvising the method employed for conducting the survey. The survey method employed was an online survey. However, as mentioned previously, the disadvantage of an online survey is that respondents might not give honest answers and it is difficult to track the credibility of the respondents. Therefore, a solution to the problem would be to use written surveys. Despite being more time-consuming and cumbersome in terms of collation of results, written surveys would ensure more accurate results as respondents could be observed while doing the survey and it would also be easier to contact respondents for further questioning.