Self-evaluation research reveals that individuals are differentially receptive to approval and disapproval from others. To examine how individuals respond to interpersonal evaluation, 96 male and female college students, chronically low or high in social anxiety (shyness), received evaluative information after a successful or unsuccessful outcome on a test of social insight. Subjects' affective and cognitive reactions to the test outcome and the evaluation valence were assessed using a modified version of the Differential Emotions Scale and a questionnaire on perceptions, attribution of responsibility, and locus of control. An analysis of the results provided strong support for self-consistency theory. Across several of the cognitive measures, subjects appeared more accepting of receiving from others evaluative information that was consistent with their self-evaluations. Specifically, low social anxiety subjects tended to accept favorable evaluations more than their high anxiety counterparts, whereas high social anxiety subjects tended to accept unfavorable evaluations more than their low anxiety counterparts. These results suggest that individuals' self-evaluations, garnered through previous interpersonal experiences, are very likely to be maintained through a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. Individuals respond to interpersonal evaluation in a manner that tends to lend credence and support to their initial and ongoing self-conceptions. (BL)