Morbid Thoughts Whet Appetite
Posted on June 25, 2008 in Current Affairs by Danteshwari
Thinking about your death increases appetite. In other words, morbid thoughts whet appetite. Thoughts about your death make your reach out for the cookie jar. An international study consisting of researchers Naomi Mandel of Arizona State University and Dirk Smeesters of Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands focused on the link between increased appetite and morbid thoughts about death.
Experiments were conducted in Europe and the United States, wherein the participants were asked to write essays on how they felt about death. Subsequently, they were asked to check off items in their grocery list or eat cookies. It was observed that that those who wrote about their own death preferred to buy more. They also ate more as compared to those who wrote on painful medical procedure. They felt like consuming all kinds of food items, both unhealthy as well as healthy.
Participants who had low self-esteem tend to overeat when thoughts of death occur to them. This theory is known as “escape from self-awareness”. People who think of impending death often feel comfortable. They question themselves- whether they have achieved much in life and made significant contribution. This is called “heightened self-awareness”. The best option to get rid of uncomfortable feeling is to overeat or over-spend.
The study also claims that by placing a mirror in front of the participants, their desire to over consume also decreased.
Source: 25th June,2008
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