“Fear guides the eyes of the beholder”: Assessing gaze avoidance in social anxiety disorder via covert eye tracking of dynamic social stimuli

•Gaze avoidance in social anxiety disorder (SAD) examined using covert eye-tracking.•Tracked gaze to video feedback stimuli per bivalent fear of evaluation (BFOE) model.•Fears of positive and negative evaluation related to state anxiety during stimuli.•SAD participants showed reduced eye gaze during both positive and negative stimuli.•Gaze avoidance is a biobehavioral marker of SAD and supports the BFOE model.