Does Hunger Make People Buy More Things besides Food?

We've all had the experience in which we purchased far too many groceries because we were hungry when shopping. But does hunger make people buy more things besides food? It turns out that shopping when hungry not only makes us buy more food items, but non-food items as well.

A study published in the Journal of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2015 revealed that hungry shoppers purchase more non-food items and spend 60% more money than shoppers who are not hungry.

The study involved 81 shoppers who were observed at a department store. Participants in the study were found to acquire more items regardless of whether the items were free or cost money. Experts believe that the desire to buy more food when hungry also affects decision making when purchasing non-food items.

More about hunger:

• Hunger is the discomfort caused by lack of food. Asia is the continent with the highest percentage of hungry people.
• It is believed that a person can survive one to three weeks without food depending on body weight, hydration and other factors.
• The survivors of the 1972 Andes plane crash ate the flesh of dead passengers to survive until they were rescued 72 days later.