Public speakers believe their nervousness is more apparent to others than is actually the case, a phenomenon known as the illusion of transparency. Study 1, in which participants delivered a public speech to an audience, provided evidence of this phenomenon. Despite this, a substantial minority of participants (36%) thought that the audience would rate them as more anxious than they actually were. We propose that these participants were adhering strongly to a social script which defines public speaking anxiety as normal. Study 2, a survey study, demonstrated the existence of this script; people tend to believe that virtually everyone experiences high levels of public speaking anxiety. Theoretical refinement is recommended to explain how this social script is integrated with the illusion of transparency. (Contains 1 table.)