Abstract
Stressful experiences frequently lead to increased consumption of unhealthy foods, high in sugar and fat yet low in nutrients. Can emotion regulation help break this link? In a laboratory experiment (N = 200), participants were encouraged to ruminate on a current, distressing personal problem, followed by instruction to use a specific emotion regulation strategy for managing feelings around that problem (challenge appraisal, relaxation/distraction, imagined social support, no-instruction control). Participants then spent 15 min on an anagram task in which 80% of items were unsolvable—a frustrating situation offering a second, implicit opportunity to use the regulation strategy. During the anagram task they had free access to a snack basket containing various options. Analyses revealed significant differences among regulation conditions in consumption of candy versus healthy snack options; challenge appraisal led to the healthiest snack choices, imagined social support to the least healthy snack choices.
Original language | English (US) |
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Journal | Affective Science |
DOIs | |
State | Accepted/In press - 2023 |
Keywords
- Eating
- Emotion regulation
- Health behavior
- Stress
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Behavioral Neuroscience
- Social Psychology
- Clinical Psychology
- Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology