ArticleCognitive therapy and research2026
The Role of Social Comparison in Appearance-Related Psychopathology: Preregistered Analyses from a Randomized Controlled Trial of a Smartphone Intervention.
Article in Cognitive therapy and research, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Background: Excessive appearance concerns represent a transdiagnostic construct that is likely maintained by appearance-related safety behaviors (ARSBs). ARSBs consist of mirror checking, camouflaging and other behaviors which are used to prevent negative evaluation based on appearance. Social comparison is one additional type of ARSB that has been given substantial research attention and has been hypothesized to contribute to a range of disorders. Methods: We leveraged data ( Results: Relative to control, targeting ARSBs led to lower social comparisons, and these changes mediated the effect of treatment on appearance concerns, eating disorder symptoms, social anxiety, and appearance importance. Changes in comparisons also predicted changes in symptom outcomes, regardless of treatment condition. Conclusions: These findings provide novel evidence for the potential role of social comparisons in appearance-related psychopathology. Further work will be necessary to confirm the maintaining role this behavior plays in symptoms of appearance-related psychopathology. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-026-10779-2.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.