Coupling this intermediate with the optical cavity, we find that the energy of the ortho-and para-substituted intermediate can have lower en-ergy than the meta-substituted species under a range of coupling strengths A 0 and cavity frequencies ω c . The relative energies of different intermediates depend on the orientation of the intermediate relative to the electric field of the cavity. A more stable ortho-substituted intermediate is formed if the cavity polarization is along one direction of the molecule (blue regions Fig. , cartesian directions defined in Scheme 1a(ii)) while the para substituent becomes stabilized for a different polarization direction (blue regions in Fig. ).