“You Say Cognitive, I Say Cognitive”: Can Misinformation-Informed Interventions Help Reduce Risk for Disordered Eating in Youth?

Objective: This paper explores how cognitive models from misinformation research can enhance existing interventions for eat-ing disorder (ED) risk, particularly in youth. We argue that frameworks developed to counter belief formation in misinformation offer a novel and underexplored avenue for intervening earlier in the pathway to disordered eating, particularly in environments saturated with persuasive –appearance- and –diet-related content that increase ED risk.

Method: We suggest that cognitive mechanisms implicated in both ED vulnerability and susceptibility to misinformation offer overlapping targets for intervention. Drawing on both literatures, we outline how –misinformation-informed strategies such as prebunking, inoculation, and content evaluation tasks can serve as complementary, brief, digitally delivered interventions.

Results: The integration of interventions tackling processing increasing ED risk with misinformation-informed approaches maybe well-suited to reduce ED risk in young people who primarily use social media for appearance reasons. These may be more effective when placed within short-form, algorithm-driven social media environments where individuals encounter problematic content with limited clinical oversight.

Discussion: Misinformation-informed strategies offer new cognitive leverage points that complement existing ED interventions. When adapted thoughtfully, these tools may serve as low-burden, scalable prevention approaches that extend support beyond the clinic and into the digital spaces where risk often emerges. We propose five concrete steps to explore this research stream.