Zooming in: The relationship between appearance concerns and perceived performance whilst videoconferencing among Australian adults.

Videoconferencing for work/study purposes has increased rapidly due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Given this practice often involves viewing one's own video image, higher appearance concerns whilst videoconferencing may be linked to poorer performance whereby individuals may not feel they are able to engage or have control during a work/study meeting. The present study cross-sectionally examined whether both facial appearance concerns and fear of negative evaluation during videoconferencing for work/study purposes were directly and indirectly related to performance control and engagement, through self-focused attention and appearance distraction. Adult participants (N = 534, Mage = 26.32, SD = 11.08; 78% female) completed an online survey during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. Path analysis revealed direct and indirect effects, suggesting that heightened appearance self-consciousness was associated with greater self- and appearance-focused attention. In turn, this was related to impaired performance during videoconferencing. Multigroup analyses demonstrated that the magnitude of the proposed correlational effects were comparable across men and women. Given the ongoing reliance on videoconferencing, these findings have important theoretical and practical implications.