
But this balance is often missing online. “When we use social media and we see lots of highly curated images, our cognitive perception of what is ‘average’ shifts to the upper end. We come to believe we are in a much worse position than we realistically are.” This can promote a drop in self-esteem, she says.
The students who told themselves “I can’t eat X” chose to eat the chocolate candy bar 61% of the time. Meanwhile, the students who told themselves “I don’t eat X” chose to eat the chocolate candy bars only 36% of the time. This simple change in terminology significantly improved the odds that each person would make a more healthy food choice.