Negative Comments and Social Media: How Cognitive Biases may Contribute to Body Image Concerns

Abstract

Body image concern is a highly prevalent issue thought to be exacerbated by social media. In addition to sociocultural factors, cognitive biases may also contribute to body image concerns. We explore whether cognitive biases in memory, for image-related words presented in a mock social-media context, are associated with body image concerns in young adult females. Participants were presented with a series of image-related comments aimed at either themselves, a close friend, or a celebrity in a recognisable social media context. Afterwards, a surprise memory task was completed that assessed item memory accuracy, metamemory, and source memory. Self-referential biases were identified for both item memory and source memory. Individuals with greater body image concern displayed a greater self-referential bias for correctly and incorrectly sourcing negative words to themselves compared with both friend and celebrity. A greater self-referential effect in metacognitive sensitivity was also associated with higher BIC. We provide novel evidence for a negative cognitive bias in sourcing negative image-related information to the self in individuals with higher body image concerns. The current study should inform cognitive remediation programmes aimed at treating individuals with body and eating-related disorders.