The Study
According to Cynthia E. Cryder et al. sad people are bigger spenders. In a paper they published a few years ago “Misery is not Miserly: Sad and Self-Focused Individuals Spend More”, they found that sad and self-focused individuals spend as much as 300% more for the same type of commodity.
The researchers randomly assigned people to either watch a sad video or an emotionally neutral video, after which they were asked to purchase a commodity (i.e. bottle of water). Participants in the sad group offered about 300% more than the neutral group for the same item.
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Higher Depression Scores Linked to Greater Chocolate Consumption
ReplyDeleteA study linking depression to chocolate consumption has been receiving a lot of press attention. The study appears in the current Archives of Internal Medicine.
Some 900 adults in California who weren't taking antidepressants completed a depression scale and also reported how much chocolate they consumed. Those who screened positive for depression ate about eight servings of chocolate per month, while those without depression ate just five servings a month — a statistically significant difference. Consumption of fat, calories, carbohydrates, and caffeine did not appear to explain the difference between the groups.
The authors emphasize that given the study's cross-sectional design, conclusions cannot be made regarding causality or the direction of the association.
It appears misery causes the human monkey to self medicate via external pleasures be it chocolate or some other pleasing sensory item. Is than it true that sad people are fat? The derivative of the sensory item (in the above case money) is not enough for this creature, it must have the more sensory commodity.
ReplyDeleteIt then can be inducted that the sad human monkey must try to increase all his pleasures via taste, touch, smell, sight and hearing or through any combination moreso than a non sad monkey.
ReplyDeleteDoes Depression Cause Obesity?
ReplyDeleteA Meta-analysis of Longitudinal Studies of Depression and Weight Control
Bruce Blaine
St John Fisher College, USA, bblaine@sjfc.edu
To evaluate the causal effects of depression on obesity, longitudinal tests of the effect of depression on follow-up obesity status were meta-analyzed. Combining data from 16 studies the results confirmed that, after controlling for potential confounding variables, depressed compared to nondepressed people were at significantly higher risk for developing obesity. The risk among depressed people for later obesity was particularly high for adolescent females (odds ratio: 2.57, 95% CI: 2.27, 2.91). These findings highlight the importance of depression screening and treatment programs, especially among adolescents, to assist in the prevention of adult obesity.