01372nas a2200181   4500000000100000008004100001260007600042653003100118653002200149653001600171100002200187245003800209300001200247490000600259520089700265022001401162020001401176       1999                            d  c07/1999bSociedad Española para el Estudio de la Ansiedad y el Estrés10aselective attentional bias10ainterpretive bias10amemory bias1 aMichel W. Eysenck00aCognitive biases in social phobia  a275-2840 v53 aSocial phobics possess a variety of cognitive biases, including selective attentional, interpretive, and memory biases. Of these biases, the most important is probably the interpretive bias in which social phobics exaggerate the inadequacy of their social behaviour. There are two main reasons why this interpretive bias is maintained: (1) social phobics engage in safetyseeking behaviours, which limit the feedback about their social behaviour that they obtain from other people; and (2) social phobics attend to their own internal physiological symptoms, and use this information to infer how anxious they seem to others. An important part of cognitivebehaviour therapy should involve attempts to reduce to eliminate interpretive bias by decreasing social phobics  use of safety-seeking behaviours and by altering their attentional focus from internal sensations to the reactions of others.  a1134-7937  a2174-0437