emotional eating

Children engage in emotional eating (i.e., in response to positive and negative emotions), a new study confirms.

To examine the effects of happiness and sadness on children’s snacking behavior, two researchers randomly assigned 91 children (age 7)... 

...to one of three conditions by showing them uplifting, neutral, or saddening videos...

Findings showed  that children in the sad condition consumed more chocolate (twice as much as in the neutral condition), followed by children in the happy condition.

Interestingly, the pattern was reversed for savory snacks (goldfish crackers.)

Source: Tan and Holub (2018)