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