Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Breaking the Link Between Negative Emotion and Unhealthy Eating: the Role of Emotion Regulation

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
  • Published:
Affective Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

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.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. In analyses retaining all participants, the same pattern of results is observed, but key effects reported herein are .05 < p < .10.

  2. Data supported existing evidence that the senior author is the only person who actually likes these.

References

  • Aldao, A., Sheppes, G., & Gross, J. J. (2015). Emotion regulation flexibility. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 39(3), 263–278.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bai, Y., Ocampo, J., Jin, G., Chen, S., Benet-Martinez, V., Monroy, M., ... & Keltner, D. (2021). Awe, daily stress, and elevated life satisfaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 120(4), 837–860.

  • Barry, V., Stout, M. E., Lynch, M. E., Mattis, S., Tran, D. Q., Antun, A., Ribeiro, M. J., Stein, S. F., & Kempton, C. L. (2020). The effect of psychological distress on health outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies. Journal of Health Psychology, 25(2), 227–239. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105319842931

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Beadman, M., Das, R. K., Freeman, T. P., Scragg, P., West, R., & Kamboj, S. K. (2015). A comparison of emotion regulation strategies in response to craving cognitions: Effects on smoking behaviour, craving and affect in dependent smokers. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 69, 29–39.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Blascovich, J. (2013). Challenge and Threat. In A. J. Elliot (Ed.), Handbook of approach and avoidance motivation (pp. 431–446). Taylor & Francis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boswell, R. G., Sun, W., Suzuki, S., & Kober, H. (2018). Training in cognitive strategies reduces eating and improves food choice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(48), E11238–E11247.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Epel, E., Lapidus, R., McEwen, B., & Brownell, K. (2001). Stress may add bite to appetite in women: A laboratory study of stress-induced cortisol and eating behavior. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 26(1), 37–49.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Evers, C., Dingemans, A., Junghans, A. F., & Boevé, A. (2018). Feeling bad or feeling good, does emotion affect your consumption of food? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 92, 195–208.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fields, S. A., Lange, K., Ramos, A., Thamotharan, S., & Rassu, F. (2014). The relationship between stress and delay discounting: A meta-analytic review. Behavioural Pharmacology, 25(5 and 6), 434–444. https://doi.org/10.1097/fbp.0000000000000044

  • Gillath, O., & Karantzas, G. (2019). Attachment security priming: A systematic review. Current Opinion in Psychology, 25, 86–95.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Giuliani, N. R., Mann, T., Tomiyama, A. J., & Berkman, E. T. (2014). Neural systems underlying the reappraisal of personally craved foods. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 26(7), 1390–1402.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Gorski, M. T., & Roberto, C. A. (2015). Public health policies to encourage healthy eating habits: Recent perspectives. Journal of Healthcare Leadership, 7, 81–90.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Groesz, L. M., McCoy, S., Carl, J., Saslow, L., Stewart, J., Adler, N., Laraia, B., & Epel, E. (2012). What is eating you? Stress and the drive to eat. Appetite, 58(2), 717–721.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gross, J. J. (2015). Emotion regulation: Current status and future prospects. Psychological Inquiry, 26(1), 1–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harmon-Jones, E., Abramson, L. Y., Nusslock, R., Sigelman, J. D., Urosevic, S., Turonie, L. D., ... & Fearn, M. (2008). Effect of bipolar disorder on left frontal cortical responses to goals differing in valence and task difficulty. Biological Psychiatry, 63(7), 693–698.

  • Hill, D., Conner, M., Clancy, F., Moss, R., Wilding, S., Bristow, M., & O’Connor, D. B. (2021). Stress and eating behaviours in healthy adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Health Psychology Review, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/17437199.2021.1923406

  • Hutcherson, C. A., Plassmann, H., Gross, J. J., & Rangel, A. (2012). Cognitive regulation during decision making shifts behavioral control between ventromedial and dorsolateral prefrontal value systems. Journal of Neuroscience, 32(39), 13543–13554.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jakubiak, B. K., & Feeney, B. C. (2016). Keep in touch: The effects of imagined touch support on stress and exploration. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 65, 59–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kober, H., Mende-Siedlecki, P., Kross, E. F., Weber, J., Mischel, W., Hart, C. L., & Ochsner, K. N. (2010). Prefrontal-striatal pathway underlies cognitive regulation of craving. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(33), 14811–14816.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lopez, R. B., Ochsner, K. N., & Kober, H. (2022). Brief training in regulation of craving reduces cigarette smoking. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 138, 108749. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsat.2022.108749

  • Maier, S. U., & Hare, T. A. (2020). Social neurobiology of Eating BOLD activity during emotion reappraisal positively correlates with dietary self-control success. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, nsaa097. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsaa097

  • O’Connor, D. B., Jones, F., Conner, M., McMillan, B., & Ferguson, E. (2008). Effects of daily hassles and eating style on eating behavior. Health Psychology, 27(1S), S20.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • O’Leary, D., Brytek-Matera, A., & Gross, J. (2021). Negative affect, affect regulation, and food choice: A value-based decision-making analysis. European Psychiatry, 64(S1), S113–S114. https://doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2021.325

    Article  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Pelletier, J. E., Lytle, L. A., & Laska, M. N. (2016). Stress, health risk behaviors, and weight status among community college students. Health Education and Behavior, 43(2), 139–144.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Piazza, J. R., Charles, S. T., Sliwinski, M. J., Mogle, J., & Almeida, D. M. (2012). Affective reactivity to daily stressors and long-term risk of reporting a chronic physical health condition. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 45(1), 110–120. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-012-9423-0

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rodriguez, L. M., Dell, J. B., Lee, K. D., & Onufrak, J. (2019). Effects of a brief cognitive reappraisal intervention on reductions in alcohol consumption and related problems. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 33(7), 637–643.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schmeichel, B. J., Harmon-Jones, C., & Harmon-Jones, E. (2010). Exercising self-control increases approach motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99(1), 162–173.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shiota, M. N., & Levenson, R. W. (2012). Turn down the volume or change the channel? Emotional effects of detached versus positive reappraisal. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 103(3), 416–429.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Smyth, J. M., Sliwinski, M. J., Zawadzki, M. J., Scott, S. B., Conroy, D. E., Lanza, S. T., Marcusson-Clavertz, D., Kim, J., Stawski, R. S., & Stoney, C. M. (2018). Everyday stress response targets in the science of behavior change. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 101, 20–29.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stice, E., Yokum, S., Burger, K., Rohde, P., Shaw, H., & Gau, J. M. (2015). A pilot randomized trial of a cognitive reappraisal obesity prevention program. Physiology and Behavior, 138, 124–132.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sturm, V. E., Datta, S., Roy, A. R., Sible, I. J., Kosik, E. L., Veziris, C. R., ... & Keltner, D. (2022). Big smile, small self: Awe walks promote prosocial positive emotions in older adults. Emotion, 22(5), 1044–1058.

  • Tabibnia, G., Creswell, J. D., Kraynak, T. E., Westbrook, C., Julson, E., & Tindle, H. A. (2014). Common prefrontal regions activate during self-control of craving, emotion, and motor impulses in smokers. Clinical Psychological Science, 2(5), 611–619.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Tenk, J., Mátrai, P., Hegyi, P., Rostás, I., Garami, A., Szabó, I., Hartmann, P., Pétervári, E., Czopf, L., & Hussain, A. (2018). Perceived stress correlates with visceral obesity and lipid parameters of the metabolic syndrome: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 95, 63–73.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, K., & Beery, B. (2019). Bad Day Ice Cream. Familius LLC.

  • Tomiyama, A. J., Schamarek, I., Lustig, R. H., Kirschbaum, C., Puterman, E., Havel, P. J., & Epel, E. S. (2012). Leptin concentrations in response to acute stress predict subsequent intake of comfort foods. Physiology and Behavior, 107(1), 34–39.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Troy, A. S., Shallcross, A. J., & Mauss, I. B. (2013). A person-by-situation approach to emotion regulation: Cognitive reappraisal can either help or hurt, depending on the context. Psychological Science, 24(12), 2505–2514.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wardle, J., Chida, Y., Gibson, E. L., Whitaker, K. L., & Steptoe, A. (2011). Stress and adiposity: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Obesity, 19(4), 771–778. https://doi.org/10.1038/oby.2010.241

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wethington, E., Glanz, K., & Schwartz, M. D. (2015). Stress, coping, and health behavior. In K. Glanz, B. K. Rimer, & K. Viswanath (Eds.), Health behavior: Theory, research, and practice (pp. 223–242). Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 871104, Tempe, AZ, 85287-1104, USA

    Erika B. Langley & Michelle N. Shiota

  2. Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Daniel J. O’Leary & James J. Gross

Authors
  1. Erika B. Langley
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Daniel J. O’Leary
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. James J. Gross
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Michelle N. Shiota
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michelle N. Shiota.

Ethics declarations

Funding

This research was supported by a generous donation from Carol A. May to Arizona State University.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Data Availability

Anonymized data can be accessed here: https://osf.io/874wd/?view_only=d0e07034b0784f19aca2168d5e48c159.

Ethics Approval

The study was conducted in accordance with the ethical standards contained in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and later amendments, and approved prior to data collection by the Office of Research Integrity and Assurance at Arizona State University.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants in the study.

Additional information

Handling Editor: Nataria Tennille Joseph

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (DOCX 26 KB)

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Langley, E.B., O’Leary, D.J., Gross, J.J. et al. Breaking the Link Between Negative Emotion and Unhealthy Eating: the Role of Emotion Regulation. Affec Sci 4, 702–710 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42761-023-00190-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42761-023-00190-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation