Why people join pro-Ana online communities? A psychological textual analysis of eating disorder blog posts

The study aimed to examine the different contents of posts published in an online community for eating disorders among four groups (Pro-Ana, Anorexia, Bulimia, and Binge Eating Disorder). The hypothesis was that Pro-Ana group members would have a greater propensity to deny the negative aspects of their eating disorder and a greater social adherence to their own blog community compared to the other groups. 1791 posts, collected from December 2018 to March 2019, were analyzed using quantitative analyses of the text through T-LAB software (version T-Lab Plus 2020). The cluster analysis of the text showed that Pro-Ana group appears to be more represented by “social sharing” cluster compared to the other groups, exhibiting a greater tendency to exchange social support about their eating behaviors. Factorial space analysis reported that Pro-Ana people tend to be less capable to provide realistic representation of their eating disorder than the other groups. Finally, Pro-Ana group members showed a greater social adherence in terms of satisfaction ratings (ratio “likes”/“views” to each post) compared to the other groups.