Thoughts of Death Make Us Eat More Cookies

Thoughts Of Death Make Us Eat More Cookies - Research Reveals How Watching TV Crime Shows Triggers Overeating

According to new research by Dirk Smeesters, Associate Professor of Marketing at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, people who are thinking about their own deaths want to consume more.

In a paper published in the Journal of Consumer Research, "The Sweet Escape: Effects of Mortality Salience on Consumption Quantities for High- and Low-Self-Esteem Consumers", Dirk Smeesters and co-author Naomi Mandel (Arizona State University) reveal that "consumers, especially those with a lower self-esteem, might be more susceptible to over-consumption when faced with images of death during the news or their favorite crime-scene investigation shows."

Smeesters and Mandel conducted experiments in Europe and the United States on 746 subjects who wrote either about their own death or a visit to the dentist (the control group). The findings revealed that consumers with low self-esteem writing about their death ate more cookies and listed more items on a hypothetical shopping list compared to those who wrote about the dentist. Similar effects were obtained by subliminally presenting the word 'death' to consumers and exposing them to death-related news.

Smeesters and Mandel explain this effect using a theory called 'escape from self-awareness'. When people are reminded of their inevitable mortality, they may start to feel uncomfortable about what they have done with their lives and whether they have made a significant mark on the universe. This is a state called 'heightened self-awareness.' One way to deal with such an uncomfortable state is to escape from it, by either overeating or overspending.

Follow-up research found that death-related news can not only increase consumers' consumption behavior, but can also affect their preferences for domestic and foreign brands. More specifically, consumers who were exposed to death-related news (e.g. a news report about a fatal car crash) had more positive preferences for domestic brands, but more negative preferences for foreign brands compared to consumers not exposed to such news. These effects were obtained because thinking about death made consumers more patriotic. These studies clearly demonstrated the potential negative effects of advertising foreign brands shortly after the broadcast of death-related programs on television.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/114854.php

I love me some crime shows and I love me some ruinously high carb/high glycemic index foods. I can mostly resist cookies though.

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Originally Posted by Amelia G

I love me some crime shows and I love me some ruinously high carb/high glycemic index foods. I can mostly resist cookies though.

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Off topic: The only shows that are usually on in my home are TruTV, HGTV, Discovery/History.

So it's always Crime drama's (wife wants to go to college for forensics, been a dream of hers since high school), home improvement type shows which is killing the wallet sometimes lol...and discovery/history channels because I usually watch all the fun "How its Made", "Mythbusters" "tattoo tabu" shows... :^)

Alright, back on topic.

I watched forensic shows when I last had tv. River Phoenix' "Last 24 Hours" was kind of spooky. Didn't know some of the facts of the matter. Guy should be alive. I still didn't reach for the Mrs. Fields though. :P

So Cookie Monster is the most pessimistic person ever?

that's fuckin depressing.


Think i'll have a cookie.

I'm considering eating myself to death every time I read about the impending Greater Depression.

How can you have a great depression? isn't that an oxymoron.

"yeah, the economy collapsed, but it was great, man!"

it should be called the Terrible Depression.

but that would probably make people even more depressed.

at least the cookie stocks are rising. maybe the economy will turn around!

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Originally Posted by Morning Glory

How can you have a great depression? isn't that an oxymoron.

"yeah, the economy collapsed, but it was great, man!"

it should be called the Terrible Depression.

but that would probably make people even more depressed.

at least the cookie stocks are rising. maybe the economy will turn around!

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According to Bush, if we shopped everything would be a-ooootay. Thus, if we shop for cookie ingredients ... the economy will be stimulated! If the economy is stimulated, then it can't possibly get depressed. Thus, no depression! (unless we have also been feeding the economy prozac, in which case it probably blew its brains out years ago) D'oh!

Yeah, and McSame is saying that we're a bunch of whiners, and the collapse of Bear Sterns, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, $5 gas and such are ALL IN OUR LITTLE HEADS.

what about viagra?

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Originally Posted by Morning Glory

what about viagra?

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Got priapism and fucked itself to death? You know viagra is covered by insurance plans due to some federal reg ... yet birth control is only covered in some states? Won't even mention the HPV vaccine, no cookies here.

You can kind of see the twisted logic:

Viagra treats a medical condition, birth control is voluntary.
I don't agree with that assessment, but still.

pregnancy is a medical condition. At least according to the AMA it is, otherwise why do people go to hospitals to have babies?

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Originally Posted by Morning Glory

So Cookie Monster is the most pessimistic person ever?

that's fuckin depressing.


Think i'll have a cookie.

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Me and Cookie Monster are going to watch a CSI: Las Vegas marathon now.

as far as I'm concerned you just need to say CSI, the one and only.

that's right, got no love for david carouso.

(well, actually, I have nothing against him. but you get the point.)