Pathogenesis of orthorexia nervosa is hitherto an under-researched field; thus, it urgently needs exploration. Unfortunately, no research indicates which factors cause orthorexia nervosa. Therefore, the identification of potential risk factors of orthorexia seems to be warranted (Bundros et al., 2016). The socio-cultural context related to social media’s influence on orthorexia nervosa has been explored for several years, mainly using qualitative research methods (e.g. Fixsen, Cheshire & Berry, 2020; Scheiber, Diehl & Karmasin, 2023; Santarossa et al., 2019; Turner & Lefevre, 2017; Valente et al., 2022a, 2022b; White et al., 2021). The popularity of orthorexia nervosa on social media platforms, such as Instagram and Twitter, is perceptible (Valente et al., 2022b). To date, there are over 194,000 posts with the hashtag (#) orthorexia on Instagram (as of 6 December 2023).