Xujia Bai , Chunmei Lan , Jiayu Li , Yuhong Zhou , Lian Zhou , Xuemei Gao
{"title":"Memory biases in problematic social media use: The impact of attachment insecurity","authors":"Xujia Bai , Chunmei Lan , Jiayu Li , Yuhong Zhou , Lian Zhou , Xuemei Gao","doi":"10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118410","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Attachment insecurity may intensify the formation of rewarding memory traces associated with social media, potentially driving subsequent social media use in familiar contexts. However, the details of what individuals with problematic social media use (PSMU) remember of social media-related episodes under attachment threat are still largely unknown. The study applied a novel memory task to investigate how attachment threat biases the long-term retrieval of social media-related episodes among at-risk users and to identify which memory aspects predict usage. Results revealed that the acute threat significantly heightened physiological and subjective attachment insecurity and selectively modulated memory retrieval. This modulation reduced access to neutral item memories while enhancing bias toward social media-related associations. Furthermore, enhanced but less detailed memory (i.e., gist memory) for social media-related associations significantly predicted actual social media usage. Trait attachment also influenced memory performance, with attachment anxiety and avoidance predicting different aspects of gist memory performance. These findings advance understanding of the cognitive processes connecting insecure attachment with PSMU and highlight the significance of considering individual differences in attachment when developing prevention and intervention strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49122,"journal":{"name":"Social Science & Medicine","volume":"382 ","pages":"Article 118410"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9000,"publicationDate":"2025-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Social Science & Medicine","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953625007415","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Attachment insecurity may intensify the formation of rewarding memory traces associated with social media, potentially driving subsequent social media use in familiar contexts. However, the details of what individuals with problematic social media use (PSMU) remember of social media-related episodes under attachment threat are still largely unknown. The study applied a novel memory task to investigate how attachment threat biases the long-term retrieval of social media-related episodes among at-risk users and to identify which memory aspects predict usage. Results revealed that the acute threat significantly heightened physiological and subjective attachment insecurity and selectively modulated memory retrieval. This modulation reduced access to neutral item memories while enhancing bias toward social media-related associations. Furthermore, enhanced but less detailed memory (i.e., gist memory) for social media-related associations significantly predicted actual social media usage. Trait attachment also influenced memory performance, with attachment anxiety and avoidance predicting different aspects of gist memory performance. These findings advance understanding of the cognitive processes connecting insecure attachment with PSMU and highlight the significance of considering individual differences in attachment when developing prevention and intervention strategies.
期刊介绍:
Social Science & Medicine provides an international and interdisciplinary forum for the dissemination of social science research on health. We publish original research articles (both empirical and theoretical), reviews, position papers and commentaries on health issues, to inform current research, policy and practice in all areas of common interest to social scientists, health practitioners, and policy makers. The journal publishes material relevant to any aspect of health from a wide range of social science disciplines (anthropology, economics, epidemiology, geography, policy, psychology, and sociology), and material relevant to the social sciences from any of the professions concerned with physical and mental health, health care, clinical practice, and health policy and organization. We encourage material which is of general interest to an international readership.