Emotional Reactions to Chocolate Taylor Boyd NTR 300 Emotional Reactions to Chocolate

Why chocolate Some people may ask “why chocolate?”. To specify, I found it relevant to look up studies done with a food that is notorious for its stereotypical relations to people’s emotions. I felt this way after realizing that many people like many different types of foods and therefore have varying connections as to how much energy they will exert into their involvement with that food item. Due to that fact, a food and emotion based test would not be very beneficial to anyone if there was not going to be an accurate or somewhat observable response. For that reason and as stated above, a food that is known worldwide for having different emotional connections was something that would be useful to look into. That is what lead me to choose chocolate and as the pictures above seem to state, there are many outright typecasts that coincide with chocolate.

Chocolate and hedonism Consumption due to strong desires Causes “pleasure” In other words… Creates a happy feeling Study in 2007 An article done by the website “howstuffworks” explains how humans strive for happiness, specifically speaking in relation to hedonism. Due to that fact, when humans find a substance that creates the feeling of happiness they often times look to obtain it. In the specific case of chocolate, this feeling is obtained with its consumption. A study was done in 2007 with men in their 70’s with similar socioeconomic backgrounds involving their favorite candy. Those who said that their favorite was chocolate also were recorded of having lower levels of depression and higher levels of optimism.

Is it the food or the feelings? Many assume food Proved untrue Done so through many studies After researching emotional eating I found that I was inaccurate in believing that it was the different types of food that influenced people to eat more. However, I found this to be largely untrue. Many studies were (and still are) carried out that involve recording test subject’s reactions to chocolate when they are placed in scenarios where they have to choose whether or not to eat it. Through the date that is pieced together during and after these tests occur, it was found that most of the behaviors that lead to and resulted in a subject eating the chocolate stemmed from something emotional. That is why chocolate is such a perfect food item to do a analysis of because it has been proven time and time again to cause one to exude emotions, whether that be due to stereotypes or an overflow of real feelings.

The test The test that was given was to observe the differences between adults that were considered emotional or retrained eaters. Participants were 56 women and 53 men of varying ages. These partakers were then given different types of chocolates with varying cocoa contents which were 30, 70, 85, or 99%. After eating one or more of the different types of chocolates, participants filled out a varying array of questionnaires. These questionnaires involved their attitudes and affect toward chocolate before and after the consumption of the item.

Was it accurate? Very broad study Did not answer “why?” Correlating to where the emotions drew from

Emotional eaters Restrained eaters Increased craving The result Increased craving Increased consumption Emotional eaters Chocolate related guilt Restrained eaters After obtaining the differing chocolate samples and ingesting them, as stated in the previous slide, the participants filled out questionnaires about the study. These questionnaires involved were ones such as; The Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire, the NEO Five-Factor Inventory, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, and the Attitudes to Chocolate Questionnaire. Each of these took different measures of emotional responses exuded by the participants when exposed to the chocolate. After these were gathered and analyzed, the results were totaled on two different scales; emotional eaters and restrained eaters. From this, one more branch was derived that explained how emotional eaters had increased craving for chocolate and consumed more as well. On the other side, the retrained eaters who did consume some of the chocolate felt a high level of guilt in direct correlation to that consumption.

The numbers These numbers were recorded after the study was completed. They are the means of all of the participants in regards to the multiple questionnaires. As illustrated above, there was more guilt in the emotional/retrained eaters than any other group. Those numbers were then followed by restrained eaters and emotional eaters. Cravings were also highest in the emotional/retrained group.

Is it just chocolate? Some may wonder if other foods could make a person emit these types of reactions and feelings like those exuded with chocolate. Therefore, another study was done that used similar questionnaires as the previous test, only an apple was added into the mix. By doing this, the reactions of an apple and chocolate were compared instead of one chocolate type to another. Above, the results of this study show what the first test displayed, which was that more guilt was felt with the intake of chocolate, as well as a increase in mood fluctuations and hunger. Overall, this study proved what the previous study had been testing for, which was that chocolate does have an affect on the mood/emotions/actions of a person.

How to test for it After reading about all of these studies, I began to wonder if there was a way to recognize emotional related eating habits. There are many studies done that allow an outside party to recognize the signs, but that does not necessarily help on an individual level. Therefore, I began to look up websites that would allow an in individual to take a test to help them recognize a potential problem. This potential problem (emotional eating) could then be stopped before it lead to major health problems. I found a test that could allow someone to figure out if they did or did not have a potential problem at Psychology Today.

Works Cited Clark, Josh. "Can Chocolate Give Me a Happy-high?" HowStuffWorks. HowStuffWorks, 2012. Web. 27 Sept. 2012. <http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/inside-the-mind/emotions/chocolate-high3.htm>. Dettmer, D. "Result Filters." Appetite. By M. Macht. 3rd ed. Vol. 46. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 332-36. National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, May 2006. Web. 13 Sept. 2012. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16546294>. "Marketing Mix." Marketing Mix. NetMBA, 2002. Web. 26 Sept. 2012. <http://www.netmba.com/marketing/mix/>. Mueller, J. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease (1958). By M. Macht. 5th ed. Vol. 127. N.p.: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, n.d. 1024-026. PubMed. Dec. 2007. Web. 13 Sept. 2012. "Self Tests by Psychology Today." Self Tests by Psychology Today. Psychology Today, n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2012. <http://psychologytoday.tests.psychtests.com/take_test.php?idRegTest=3244>.