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Background: Normal cognitive functioning enables individuals to ensure the accurate functioning of different thought processes including receiving, selecting, transforming, storing and ultimately retrieving the information which assists a person to navigate respond to the world. Although this navigation may be biased by cognitive distortions, these distortions may also be protected by psychological reactance - a tendency to protect personal liberties that are perceived as being forcefully taken away. In combination, these two phenomena may form a fertile ground for the development of various mental health issues, which highlights the relevance of understanding their relationship. Aim: To determine the relationship between cognitive distortions and psychological reactance while studying the impact of social responsibility as a mediator variable. Method: The study was conducted online in a cross-sectional manner, on 328 female Saudi university students recruited from diverse cultural, economic, social backgrounds, who were on average 21.24 years old. Results: Psychological reactance can be predicted by cognitive distortions, and this relationship is partially mediated by social obligation, while individual responsibility and social response were revealed as suppressors. Conclusion: Social obligation partially mediated the relationship between cognitive distortions and psychological reactance, however further studies on more representative samples are required before generalizing these results.