For those who get snappy when they miss out on lunch, it may be the perfect excuse: researchers have confirmed that a lack of food makes otherwise bearable people “hangry”.
In one of the first studies to explore how hunger affects emotions as people go about their daily lives, psychologists found that the more hungry people felt, the more angry – or hangry – they became.
The study came about after Prof Viren Swami, a social psychologist at Anglia Ruskin University, was told – on more than one occasion – that he was hangry and should do something about it. The challenge left him wondering if being hangry was a real phenomenon.
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Writing in the journal Plos One, the psychologists describe how hunger was associated with stronger feelings of anger and irritability and lower levels of pleasure. “It turns out that being hangry is a real thing,” said Swami.
The study does not propose any radical solutions, but Swami believes that being able to recognize and label the emotion can itself be of help. “A lot of the time, we might be aware of what we are feeling but not understand the cause of it. If we can label it, we are better able to do something about it,” he said.
