One-shot intervention reduces online engagement with distorted content

Depression is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide. Individuals with depression often experience unrealistic and overly negative thoughts, i.e. cognitive distortions, that cause maladaptive behaviors and feelings. Now that a majority of the US population uses social media platforms, concerns have been raised that they may serve as a vector for the spread of distorted ideas and thinking amid a global mental health epidemic. Here, we study how individuals ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mi>n</mml:mi> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>838</mml:mn></mml:math> ) interact with distorted content on social media platforms using a simulated environment similar to Twitter (now X). We find that individuals with higher depression symptoms tend to prefer distorted content more than those with fewer symptoms. However, a simple one-shot intervention can teach individuals to recognize and drastically reduce interactions with distorted content across the entire depression scale. This suggests that distorted thinking on social media may disproportionally affect individuals with depression, but simple awareness training can mitigate this effect. Our findings have important implicasstions for understanding the role of social media in propagating distorted thinking and potential paths to reduce the societal cost of mental health disorders.