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Cognitive Distortions Associated with Loneliness: An Exploratory Study.
Kory Floyd1, Colter D Ray2, Josephine K Boumis3
1Department of Communication, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
Behavioral Sciences (Basel, Switzerland)
|August 28, 2025
Summary
Chronic loneliness impacts health and relationships. This study found essentializing, mindreading, and catastrophizing cognitive distortions are key factors linking loneliness to stress and poor mental well-being.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Mental Health Research
- Social Science
Background:
- Chronic loneliness affects millions globally, negatively impacting physical health, mental well-being, and social connections.
- Cognitive distortions are recognized as significant contributors to the perpetuation of loneliness.
- While psychological interventions targeting cognitive distortions show promise, specific prevalent distortions among lonely individuals and their precise relationships with loneliness and mental well-being require further investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify prevalent cognitive distortion patterns among lonely individuals.
- To examine the relationship between these cognitive distortions, loneliness severity, and mental well-being.
- To explore the mediating role of cognitive distortions in the relationship between loneliness and stress.
Main Methods:
- An exploratory study involving a Census-matched sample of 1000 U.S. adults, prescreened for loneliness.
- Participants in the top loneliness quartile (N = 237) completed ratings of various loneliness-related cognitive distortions.
- Factor analysis was employed to identify common patterns of cognitive distortion.
Main Results:
- Six influential cognitive distortion patterns were identified: mindreading, future reward, catastrophizing, essentializing, deservedness, and externalizing.
- Essentializing emerged as the most strongly endorsed pattern, followed by mindreading and catastrophizing.
- Essentializing showed the strongest correlation with loneliness, and mindreading, catastrophizing, and essentializing fully mediated the link between loneliness and stress.
Conclusions:
- Specific cognitive distortions, particularly essentializing, mindreading, and catastrophizing, are highly prevalent among lonely individuals.
- These identified distortions are strongly associated with loneliness and mental well-being.
- Targeting these specific cognitive distortions in psychological interventions is crucial for effectively improving the mental health outcomes of individuals experiencing loneliness.
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