Hunger Games: How Your Empty Stomach Hijacks Your Mood

A man eagerly prepares to enjoy a delicious burger loaded with fresh lettuce and tomatoes, accompanied by a side of crispy fries.

Have you ever gotten ticked off at your friend for slightly grazing your arm, or wanted to lash out at a slow driver? Minor inconveniences suddenly enrage you, and amidst your growing anger, you realize you've skipped your meal and haven't eaten for the past eight hours. Ah! Now it makes sense. You're not an evil person. You were just hangry! But is this universal experience of hangriness a scientifically backed phenomenon, or is it a sorry excuse for negative emotion and bad behavior?

What is "Hangry"?

"Hangry" is a combination of the words hungry and angry. The slang term was formalized by its addition to the Oxford Dictionary in 2018, defined as "bad-tempered or irritable as a result of hunger." (OED, 2018). Alongside its legitimacy within the English language, "hangry" is a well-documented phenomenon in science.

From Pattern to Proof

A 2022 observational study sought to determine the correlation between hunger and emotion (Swami, et al., 2022). 64 participants reported their hunger levels alongside feelings of anger, irritability, pleasure, and arousal 5 times a day for 3 weeks straight. At the end of the study, over 9000 data points supported the correlation between hunger and anger, connecting elevated hunger levels to anger and irritability. This correlation between elevated hunger levels with anger and irritability remained true across age, sex, body mass index, and natural hot-temperedness, suggesting that hunger itself was affecting mood.

However, this association doesn't prove that hunger caused the change in mood. Stressed people may be just more likely to skip meals and get angrier more easily. Maybe hunger has nothing to do with it at all.

To test the cause and effect, researchers did experiments where they decided who would go hungry, instead of just observing who already was. Women were randomly assigned to one of two groups: either fast for 14 hours or eat a normal breakfast (Ackermans, et al., 2022). In this relatively controlled environment, mood differences could not be attributed to factors other than hunger itself. The results between fasted and fed groups were clear, with the fasted group reporting significantly higher levels of tension, fatigue, anger, and lower energy. This time, the evidence was clearly not due to random correlation. Hunger wasn't just linked to anger; it most likely caused it.

A plate with the word "HUNGER" highlights the issue of food scarcity and hunger.

The Blame Game

So, hunger likely causes anger. Great. But why does your hungry stomach direct its frustration to your friend or a stranger who had no cause in its pain? The answer lies in affect misattribution (when people mistakenly attribute their feelings to the wrong cause) (MacCormack & Lindquist, 2019). When hungry, your body is in a vague, highly aroused state of discomfort. As your brain processes these feelings, it works to pinpoint the cause. If you happen to be mildly annoyed at that time, your brain attributes the discomfort to whatever is in front of you. Hence, your kind friend or a slow car may unjustly take the fall.

Conclusion

The next time you feel a wave of rage over a harmless nudge or a leisurely pace, know that you are not a secretly terrible person. You may just be hungry. Although science doesn't excuse snapping, it explains why it happens. The next time you get annoyed, ponder when you last ate, and maybe grab a snack.

Written by Angela Lee and edited by Aldrin V. Gomes, PhD.

References

Hangry, adj. Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press; 2018. https://www.oed.com/dictionary/hangry_adj

Swami V, Hochstöger S, Kargl E, Stieger S. Hangry in the field: An experience sampling study on the impact of hunger on anger, irritability, and affect. PLoS One. 2022;17(7):e0269629. Published 2022 Jul 6. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0269629

Ackermans MA, Jonker NC, Bennik EC, de Jong PJ. Hunger increases negative and decreases positive emotions in women with a healthy weight. Appetite. 2022;168:105746. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2021.105746

MacCormack JK, Lindquist KA. Feeling hangry? When hunger is conceptualized as emotion. Emotion. 2019;19(2):301-319. doi:10.1037/emo000042