Do negative emotions affect eating? A meta-analysis

Abstract

Despite many empirical studies on emotional eating (eating in response to negative emotions), the very basic question of whether negative emotions affect eating, and in whom, remains unclear. The current meta-analysis assessed the state of knowledge concerning the effect of negative emotions on eating in the non-eating disordered population. To this end, published reports on experimental studies that investigated the causal effect of negative emotions on eating behavior in non-eating disordered participants were included (k = 20). The moderating impact of individual differences in restrained eaters (k = 10), unrestrained eaters (k = 9), and obese individuals (k = 5) was assessed. Results revealed that the general main effect of negative emotions on food intake was not significant (d = .068). Additionally, there was no significant effect for restrained/unrestrained eaters (d = .219 / d = .168), or obese participants (d = -.101). These findings indicate that negative emotions do not affect eating patterns in non-eating disordered samples. However, qualitatively good studies are called for in order to achieve more homogeneous effect sizes for the individual difference measures.