Positive Biases and Psychological Functioning During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Many individuals have experienced a multitude of chronic stressors and diminished psychological functioning during COVID-19. The current study examined whether cognitive biases towards positive social media or positive autobiographical memories was related to increases in psychological functioning during COVID-19. Participants were 1071 adults (Mage=46.31; 58% female) recruited from CloudResearch/Turk Prime in the spring and summer of 2020. Participants reported on their social media consumption and autobiographical recall, positive and negative affect, and dysphoria symptoms. Results indicated that positively biased social media consumption was related to higher levels of positive affect, and positively biased autobiographical recall was related to lower levels of negative affect and dysphoria symptoms. Relations between positively biased social media consumption and negative affect and dysphoria symptoms differed by racial group; positively biased social media consumption was related to higher levels of negative affect for Black/African American individuals and lower levels of negative affect for Asian American/Pacific Islanders, and to lower levels of dysphoria symptoms for White individuals and Asian American/Pacific Islander individuals. The findings point to potential psychological benefits of positive biases during chronic stressors with some variation across racial groups.