Hunger Hormones Psychology: Don't Make Financial Decisions When Hungry

Most people are aware that going food shopping on an empty stomach can only result in disappointment when you find you have nothing but potato chips and Ding Dongs to show for your outing.

Myanmar Refugees Recover In Aceh — IDI RAYEUK, INDONESIA - FEBRUARY 12: Rohingya boat people queue for lunch at a refugee camp in a district of the town of Idi Rayeuk on February 12, 2009 in Aceh province on Sumatra island, Indonesia. Approximately 200 Rohingya Muslim refugees continue to receive treatment after being rescued from boats drifting at sea for up to three weeks. Reports indicate that approximately 1,200 people from the Myanmar region may have tried to gain entry to Thailand. The Indonesian Navy continues to search for any possible survivors, though it is not clear how many people are missing. Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images

However, studies say that making any decision when hungry will lead to bad long-term decisions. And for people who are chronically starving, this may have significant repercussions.

Blame It On The Hormones!

According to SciTechDaily, higher levels of the stomach-derived hormone ghrelin, which raises appetite, predict a preference for smaller immediate monetary rewards over greater delayed monetary rewards. The report's conclusions will be presented at ENDO 2021, the Endocrine Society's annual meeting.

Co-investigator Franziska Plessow, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, underscored that the so-called hunger hormone called ghrelin influences monetary decision making. According to recent research findings in rodents, ghrelin may play a role in impulsive choices and behaviors, she added.

"Our results indicate that ghrelin might play a broader role than previously acknowledged in human reward-related behavior and decision making, such as monetary choices," Plessow said. "This will hopefully inspire future research into its role in food-independent human perception and behavior."

Ghrelin alerts the brain to the need to feed and can alter reward-processing pathways in the brain. Ghrelin levels fluctuate during the day, depending on food consumption and metabolism.

There were 84 female participants in this sample, ranging in age from 10 to 22, 50 of whom had a low-weight eating disorder such as anorexia nervosa, and 34 balanced monitors. Plessow's team measured overall ghrelin levels in the blood before and during a standardized meal for patients who fasted beforehand.

After dinner, participants took the delay discounting task, a hypothetical financial decisions simulation. They were offered a set of options to determine whether they chose a smaller immediate monetary reward or a greater deferred monetary reward, such as $20 today or $80 in 14 days.

ALSO READ : Are You Indecisive? Here's How to Solve Your Life Dilemma, According to Experts

The researchers found that healthy participants with higher ghrelin levels were more likely to prefer an immediate but smaller monetary incentive over waiting for a greater sum of money. According to Plessow, this preference means more impulsive decisions.

There was no correlation between ghrelin levels and monetary decisions in age-matched participants with a low-weight eating disorder. Ghrelin resistance is normal in individuals with this eating disorder. Plessow suggests their results lead to a disconnect between ghrelin signaling and activity in this group.

Hunger Could Bring Carryover Impact on Food

A separate study, titled Hunger Increases Delay Discounting of Food and Non-Food Rewards, backed up the research.

The researchers wondered whether hunger would influence now-versus-later choices in other fields, such as money and music.

The researchers asked participants who were either full or hungry after a 10-hour fast if they would prefer more food, money, or music now or in the future. And they discovered that hunger had spilled over into other regions. For example, satiated participants were willing to wait 35 days for twice the future amount. Still, hungry participants were only willing to wait three days. In satiated and hungry conditions, the drop in money was 90 days to 40 days. The drop-in music downloads were about 40 days to 12 days in satiated and hungry conditions.

After a bit of algebra, the team came up with the following: Hunger has a compelling carryover impact on food. However, its effects on money and music are also mild. When people are starving, the bottom line is that they become more concentrated on instant pleasure in several ways.

Experts said that the results could have practical implications: making financial choices on an empty stomach could lead to more rash decisions.

People who are severely malnourished may be especially vulnerable: recent research has shown that the burden of poverty may contribute to poor financial decisions-hunger may worsen the problem. Fasting people may also be more vulnerable to making bad long-term decisions in ways other than food.