The current study examined the effects of positive vocal transformation feedback in social anxiety-provoking situations. Previous studies have indicated that explicit feedback on internal states associated with anxiety may lead to a negative interpretation of states and then increase anxiety. Additionally, conflicting results have been reported regarding the effects of explicit positive feedback, showing anxiety reduction or anxiety maintenance. In the current literature, the role of implicit processing in positive feedback has not been fully understood. In this study, participants were asked to read aloud a text under the social anxiety-provoking situation that would be evaluated by others. During the task, real-time vocal transformation feedback was provided, incorporating acoustic features with positive emotions. The results showed that skin conductance level was reduced without being aware of the feedback in participants who received positive vocal feedback. This result suggests that implicit feedback may reduce anxiety by preventing negative interpretations of internal states. The current findings are expected to provide a potential clinical application for reducing anxiety during speech production.
