Why "hungry and angry"?
When you are hungry, can you be particularly prone to anger? For many people, they are no strangers to “hangry”, and they are pessimistic and overwhelmed when they are hungry, but why hunger can make people run out of control? It is a mystery. To this end, Jennifer MacCormack, a doctoral candidate in psychology and neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, decided to do an experiment to get a good understanding of the underlying mechanism.
The most recent dictionary was included
McCormack said: "We all know that hunger sometimes affects our emotions, and how we see the world, but until recently the Oxford Dictionary only included the word "hungry to anger.""
"Our research aims to better understand the emotional state caused by hunger. The psychological mechanism behind this state is how someone gets hungry."
▲ In this 1970 advertisement, the girl who couldn’t eat peanuts shed tears sadly. (Source: Flickr/Classic Film CC BY 2.0)
Experiment to understand the underlying mechanism
In order to understand the mechanism behind people's hunger and anger, McCormack's research team also designed a series of experiments and published the results of the experiment in the Journal of Emotion.
A group of fasting, a group has a meal
In one of the experiments, McCormack recruited two groups of college students, each with 118 people. The first group fasted for 5 hours before coming to the laboratory. The second group had a meal before coming to the laboratory. The researchers asked half of the people in each group to write down short essays about their own emotional changes, to get them to pay attention to their current state of mind, and the other half to write a neutral, non-emotional short essay. Mark said: "We want to see if self-awareness can block the mood and behavior of being hungry and angry."
Dazzling computer test
Then, the researchers asked the subjects to do a series of lengthy, boring computer tests. McCormack said: "I designed a fake task filled with colorful circles. Those colors are really bright and dazzling, making it difficult to look directly at. Plus 100 quizzes, this is really a daunting task."
▲ Through experiments, the researchers learned how the emotional response of the hungry group and the general group of subjects was in a negative environment. (Source: Flickr/Kutakizukari CC BY 2.0)
Quiz before the end of the quiz
Just as the subject is about to complete the computer test, the test will deliberately be down. McCormack said: "The computer will die." Then, the researcher will enter the test room and begin to blame the subject. McCormack mentioned that they would say: "Hey, what button did you press? It must have been your fault."
“Then we will let them suffer for two minutes. In the end, although no one was angry at me, some people looked nervous and depressed. Many people also rolled their eyes and crossed their arms.”
Did not eat, and those who did not write emotional essays were most angry
A few minutes later, the researchers will ask the participants to fill in the sentiment questionnaire. The questionnaire looks like a survey of the satisfaction of the study. Everyone has to fill in before they can leave. Finally, McCormack found that all the subjects had been experimenting. It was a bit unhappy to do it, but only the students who had not eaten before and did not write about their own emotional essay were particularly upset.
"They think that experimenters are particularly picky. They also say that they feel more anger than others."
Hungry Group Looks Negative at Large Picture Response
In another experiment, the researchers asked subjects to look at pictures with positive, negative, or neutral emotions, like cute kittens, roaring dogs, or a stone. When the hungry group and the general group are affected When the examiners looked at pictures of positive or neutral emotions, they did not feel any strong emotional changes. However, when the hungry group looked at pictures of negative emotions, they responded more than the general group.
▲ Researchers have found that if people are simply not hungry and don’t get mad, they still need to stay in a negative environment and they are not aware of their own emotional changes. (Source: Flickr/Adrian CC BY 2.0)
The key to anger: The environment and self-awareness
From the above experiments, it can be found that when people are hungry, there are two major reasons why people will not be hungry: the environment and self-awareness.
Not angry just because you are hungry
The co-author of the study, Dr. Kristen Lindquist, said: "You don't start to get angry with the entire universe because of hunger. We all had feelings of hunger. We knew that this uncomfortable condition was hunger, and then After eating a sandwich, it feels much better. We found that if one wants to “hungry,” one must first let this person feel uncomfortable because of hunger, and let him interpret this sentiment as something else for others or for the environment in which he lives. Strongly disgusted."
Still have to be in a negative environment
The UC Psychologists Elizabeth Davis and Dr. Linquist, who were not involved in the study, had similar findings. She said the study identified two things: First, light hunger is not enough 3. When you are hungry and angry, the hungry person must be in a negative environment or stimulated by negative things.
Hunger is like a signal
Moreover, if people are more likely to feel their emotions, people are less likely to be hungry. Davies mentioned that hunger is like a signal, telling people something is wrong, it's time to eat, but people have Sometimes this kind of uncomfortable feeling will be ingrained in certain outward appearances, and it will not listen well to one's own body.
▲ According to the researchers' advice, people are best not to go hungry. When they find that their stomach is a little empty, it is time to eat. (Source: Flickr/Glenn Euloth CC BY 2.0)
Don't be hungry and angry
Researcher McCormack believes that the observations brought by this study may help people not get hungry. She said: “By understanding the causes of our hunger and anger, we can provide tools to people and let them know when Hunger is affecting their feelings and behavior."
It's best not to go hungry
"Just take a step back from the present state and observe what you are feeling now. You can be (or originally) you when you are hungry," McCormack added. Don't be hungry. The best way is not to starve. She Say: "If I find I am going to be hungry and angry, I will look for something to eat. This will help cushion some of the conflicts that occur in marriage."
"It is very important to take good care of our body. It is important to pay attention to the signals from the body. This is not only for our long-term mental health, but also for our psychological experience, social relations and the daily quality of work performance."