Anxiety disorders, especially social anxiety, pose a big problem for younger population and are most commonly diagnosed in adolescence or young adulthood. The study aimed to examine the relationship between shyness and social anxiety and the moderating role of sociability and emotion regulation in that relationship. 459 people participated in the research, 363 women, 94 men and two transgender persons. The age of the respondents ranged from 18 to 30 years, with the average of 23.34 years. The instruments used were: The Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN), Revised Cheek and Buss Shyness Scale (RCBS), Sociability Scale and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS-16). Research was conducted online using Google Docs tool. The results showed a statistically significant correlation of all variables included in the study. Social anxiety was significantly, positively correlated with shyness and difficulties in emotion regulation. Hierarchical regression analysis found a significant contribution of shyness and sociability in explaining social anxiety, while the moderating role of sociability in the relationship of shyness and social anxiety wasn't confirmed. Furthermore, difficulties in emotion regulation significantly contrubuted in explaining social anxiety, too. Besides that, hierarchical regression analysis conducted on a selected sample of respondents who, to some extent, have symptoms of social anxiety, difficulties in emotion regulation significantly moderated the relationship between shyness and social anxiety. Such results point to various risk factors that can contribute to the development of social anxiety, like shyness and difficulties in emotion regulation, and have important implications for future research as well as clinical practice.