“My code is shit”: Negative automatic thoughts and outcomes of a behavioral experiment for code review anxiety

Code review anxiety is a common experience that interrupts important processes in software development, including improving code quality, social learning, and creative problem-solving. However, research has not yet examined intervention strategies for mitigating code review anxiety during a real-world code review. The present study thus developed and assessed the effectiveness of a guided behavioral experiment toolkit to be used during code reviews. The findings indicated that the toolkit reduced code review anxiety and decreased the believability of negative automatic thoughts (NATs). A qualitative analysis also indicated that participants were most likely to engage in the thinking trap of catastrophizing, and that they most frequently challenged their NATs by boosting their self-efficacy.