The impact of loneliness on the self-reference effect in remembering and directed forgetting

This study investigated the impact of loneliness on the self-reference effect (SRE) under conditions of intentional remembering and directed forgetting. Across two experiments using a self-description paradigm, individuals with high and low levels of loneliness were compared. Results indicated that both groups showed a robust SRE relative to friend- and stranger-referenced items; however, only the high-loneliness group exhibited a mnemonic advantage for negative words. In the directed forgetting task, low-loneliness individuals exhibited greater cognitive flexibility, as they adjusted self-referential memory processing in response to task instructions, whereas high-loneliness individuals exhibited a stable self-referential advantage across both conditions, accompanied by blunted differentiation between friend-referenced and stranger-referenced information. These findings indicate that loneliness is associated with altered self-referential memory processing, characterized by enhanced sensitivity to negative information and reduced flexibility in intentional memory control. By integrating self-reference and directed forgetting paradigms, the present study provides new evidence that loneliness influences not only what individuals remember, but also how flexibly they regulate self-related information in memory.