Mere experience of low subjective socioeconomic status stimulates appetite and food intake

Abstract

Among social animals, subordinate status or low social rank is associated with increased caloric intake and weight gain. This may reflect an adaptive behavioral pattern that promotes acquisition of caloric resources to compensate for low social resources that may otherwise serve as a buffer against environmental demands. Similarly, diet-related health risks like obesity and diabetes are disproportionately more prevalent among people of low socioeconomic resources. Whereas this relationship may be associated with reduced financial and material resources to support healthier lifestyles, it remains unclear whether the subjective experience of low socioeconomic status may alone be sufficient to stimulate consumption of greater calories. Here we show that the mere feeling of lower socioeconomic status relative to others stimulates appetite and food intake. Across four studies, we found that participants who were experimentally induced to feel low (vs. high or neutral) socioeconomic status subsequently exhibited greater automatic preferences for high-calorie foods (e.g., pizza, hamburgers), as well as intake of greater calories from snack and meal contexts. Moreover, these results were observed even in the absence of differences in access to financial resources. Our results demonstrate that among humans, the experience of low social class may contribute to preferences and behaviors that risk excess energy intake. These findings suggest that psychological and physiological systems regulating appetite may also be sensitive to subjective feelings of deprivation for critical nonfood resources (e.g., social standing). Importantly, efforts to mitigate the socioeconomic gradient in obesity may also need to address the psychological experience of low social status.

Subjective social status is associated with compensation for large meals – A prospective pilot study

“…Recent studies have experimentally induced lower or higher SSS (24, 25). Cheon et al conducted four studies where low (vs. high or neutral) socioeconomic status was experimentally induced in the participants.…”

“…Cheon et al conducted four studies where low (vs. high or neutral) socioeconomic status was experimentally induced in the participants. They observed that the subjective experience of low social class resulted in a preference for high energy foods and increased intake of energy from meals and snacks independent of financial resources (24). Cardel et al also conducted a randomized crossover study in Hispanic young adults to experimentally manipulate social status conditions using a game of Monopoly™.…”

Larger Than Life: Injecting Hope into the Planetary Health Paradigm

“…Again, this is distinct from mentioning the negative mental health impacts of climate change. In discussions of education and behavior, there is no mention of educating the affluent to understand what it 'feels' like to be in poverty [208][209][210]; this is an upstream step that might incentivize policy makers to more viscerally understand how neoliberal 'behaviors' influence the status quo. Moreover, the term living wage (or even the word 'wage' makes no appearance)-which seems odd given its connection to positive mental health and the healthy behaviors, (including healthy dietary patterns and opportunity for recreation) which planetary health is attempting to promote [211][212][213][214][215][216][217][218].…”

Down to Earth: Planetary Health and Biophilosophy in the Symbiocene Epoch

“…Research on allostatic load informs us that past experiences in the ecological theatre would prime the individual for higher levels of inflammation and oxidative stress in response to stress. Consider that even the mere researcher-invoked feeling of poverty or belonging to an SES "out-group" (in a laboratory setting) is enough to alter dietary choices in the direction of low-nutrient, high-calorie foods [93][94][95].…”