Objective To examine differences in emotional susceptibility, emotional needs for emotional regulation, and choice and use of regulatory strategies among college students with different levels of social anxiety. To provide useful guidance for intervention of anxiety symptoms dominated by emotional disorders. Methods Using the experimental method, 256 college students were recruited, and the high social anxiety group and the low social anxiety group were selected to conduct the emotional regulation flexibility experiment. Results The high social anxiety group had a higher susceptibility to negative emotions, a higher emotional intensity, and a lower level of control, and they had less flexibility and repertoire in different situations. Susceptibility to positive emotions significantly predicted the number of repertoires and total strategies. Emotional intensity and degree of control significantly predicted regulatory flexibility. Conclusion People with high social anxiety are less flexible in their emotional regulation. This is mainly reflected in the fact that they choose fewer different strategies in controllable situations, use disengagement strategies regardless of the situation, and make less effort to retrieve and use regulatory strategies in different situations. Although social anxious individuals are significantly more sensitive to negative emotions, positive emotional sensitivity plays a greater role in the emotional regulation process of social anxious individuals. Therefore, future research should further explore the characteristics of social anxious individuals’ positive emotional cognition and pay attention to the perception of positive emotions in intervention.