I will always be the
first person to admit that when I'm hungry, I can become rather
unpleasant. This often happens when I've waited too long, didn't go
to the grocery store or my food is taking too long to get to me at a
restaurant. According to a study, this situation could cause a
rational person to become a beast. They refer to it as hangry. I
think it is a ridiculous word that for some illogical reason found
its way into dictionaries. I wonder if you're happy and full you
could be considered “hapull” or if you're hungry and sad are you
considered to be “hungrad?” If you're thirsty and hungry could
you be considered “thirstgry?” If any of these words end up in
the dictionary, remember I invented them.
Below are excerpts from
the story with my valuable insights in italics.
Researchers with the
University of North Carolina set out to discover the mechanisms
behind this physical/emotional conundrum. They say it is a result of
a combination of things, not just a plummet in blood sugar levels. It
is something like a pot of biology, personality and environmental
cues that boils over. And if a watched pot never boils, being a good
observer might be part of the cure.
I must admit, the image
of a pot of biology by itself is not appealing. Boiling
environmental and personality cues are also not something I want to
spend too much time thinking about during my life. The main thing to
realize is this research was conducted on people being hungry and
angry. A condition as old as mankind. I don't know if their
research will solve this problem, but it did result in a new word
being placed in the dictionary. No matter what happens, they can say
their research at least provided a new word to describe old problems.
“We’ve all felt
hungry, recognized the unpleasantness as hunger, had a sandwich and
felt better. We find that feeling hangry happens when you feel
unpleasantness due to hunger but interpret those feelings as strong
emotions about other people or the situation you’re in.”
I agree. When I'm
experiencing the unpleasantness of hunger, I have some very strong
emotions toward the person standing in front of me who is clueless as
to what is on the menu and can't make up their mind about what they
want to order. I can turn into a bit of a beast as this confused
person who is in front of me wants to talk about their cousin Edna's
gallbladder surgery with the person behind the counter rather than
decide what they want to have for lunch. In this situation, I turn
into a pot of boiling over biology turned into a hangry beast because
of environmental conditions. In other words, I don't tolerate
self-absorbed idiots who can't comprehend there is a line of people
behind them waiting to order their food. Maybe, it's just me. I
don't know. Could I be frustrated and upset or fruspset?
To learn more about the
lead-up to hangry, researchers set up two online experiments with 400
participants who were first shown an image that was intended to
create positive, negative or neutral emotions. Then they were shown
an ambiguous image of a Chinese pictograph and asked to rate it on a
seven-point scale from pleasant to unpleasant. Participants also
rated their hunger level during the experiment.
A Chinese pictograph?
What was in the pictograph? Could it have been lo mein, hot and sour
soup, fried rice or General Tso's Chicken?
(Sarcasm Alert)
An experiment involving
400 people looking at pictographs and rating their emotions has to be
the most sound science available. What if the people were eating as
they were doing the rating? Wouldn't that impact the results? I'm
sure things would be different if they looked at the pictographs
waiting to get food and standing behind a clueless person discussing
their cousin Edna's gallbladder surgery instead of ordering. I'm
sure using people who are fruspset would impact the results.
A second experiment was
undertaken in a laboratory setting with 200 university students. Some
of the participants were asked to arrive in a fasting state while
others were told to eat beforehand. Some of the students were given a
writing exercise that would force them to focus on their emotions.
Then all became players in a real-life scenario sure to stir
plenty of emotions.
(Sarcasm Alert)
If you want to provide
some earth-shattering discoveries, I guess it all begins by asking
college students to arrive hungry and do a writing exercise. I'm
sure some of the emotions they were experiencing could be anxiety at
waiting to finish the writing exercise so they could get paid for
being part of the experiment. Anticipation at what they were going
to eat with the money they were going to get for being part of the
experiment. There could be boredom because many college students do
writing exercises hungry depending on if they like cold pizza or not.
The embarrassment at the thought they have sunk so low they're
willing to be hungry when doing a writing exercise to make a little
money could also affect their emotions.
Not surprisingly, hungry
participants were more likely to report such negative emotions as
feeling stressed and hateful, even when they were not specifically
focusing on their own emotions. They also felt that the researcher
who popped into the room was harsh and judgmental.
I wonder if the
researchers popped in the room and were eating a sandwich? Maybe the
researchers did this and talked about how good the sandwich was and
how the hungry college students looked a little famished. They may
have then told the college students the places nearest to them where
they could buy food just closed. This could turn a college student
into a Hangry Hulk.
Below
is a link to the story.
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