Beyond Hunger: How Social and Emotional Factors Shape What We Eat

We may think of feeding ourselves as an automatic process that we do each day without consideration. However, there are many factors that may affect the type and quantity of food that we eat each day without us even realising.

In humans, the purpose of food has gone beyond the necessity of providing our body with nutrients, becoming an important aspect of our social lives. It is therefore unsurprising that our food intake and choices can be affected by social factors, such as the people that we eat with. Research in food psychology shows that people use other peoples’ eating as a model for their own and that this effect is not moderated by hunger. This has important implications in the development of disordered eating behaviours because it suggests that even if someone is very hungry, they are unlikely to increase the amount they are eating if the person they are with is not eating very much. Scarily, this shows how people are able to ignore hunger cues due to social influence, highlighting the role of your peers on your personal food intake.

Another factor that influences our diets is our mood. The phenomenon of “emotional eating” is commonly observed, when an individuals’ eating behaviours reflect an attempt to alleviate their negative mood. Unpleasant emotions like anxiety are associated with craving sweet foods which may help to reduce negative moods. Experiencing stress can decrease the pleasure we experience from eating highly palatable foods, leading us to overeat to compensate for this reduced pleasure. This shows how negative moods can cause us to increase our intake and eat more sweet foods, which may help to attenuate short term stress, but is not correlated with long-term happiness. In fact, the consumption of healthy foods such as fruit, vegetables, proteins, and healthy fats have been associated with lasting positive emotions. Individuals who are feeling positive emotions report an increase in eating with the purpose of enjoying the taste of food. Therefore, to support happiness, we should put effort into making delicious, nutritionally balanced meals.

Being aware of factors that influence our eating can help us to overcome the effects of social influence and negative moods. We can best support our well-being through food by focusing on our own hunger cues instead of other people’s, and keeping track of the food we eat when we feel our best.