Why hungry women spend more

IT has long been thought that shopping for food on an empty stomach makes you buy more.

Now scientists say the problem is worse for women, who were willing to spend a fifth more than men if shopping while hungry.

Researchers suggested the difference between the sexes could be that women have been conditioned to assume a nurturing role, and are therefore more sensitive to shortages of food.

The Spanish study found all participants were willing to spend 21 per cent more on food when hungry, but women were willing to pay up to 18 per cent more than men.

Scientists from the university of Zaragoza said: ‘Individuals should avoid buying food when they are in a hungry state because they will be more likely to purchase unhealthy food and pay more for it than when they are satiated. This is one of the reasons why some food companies schedule testing promotions at stores and supermarkets before lunch and dinner time to drive shoppers to start to crave the food, thereby driving up sales, whether or not the shoppers were initially hungry.’

In the study 129 people were asked to take part in an auction for different cheeses.

They held two auctions, one before lunch and the second after, when they had eaten a measured amount of food and liquid. The journal of Food Quality and Preference reported: ‘Consumers were willing to pay more when hungry than when satiated.’

When the participants’ body mass index was taken into account, the academics found that ‘obese people were willing to pay 33 per cent more for cheese products than non-obese people’.

The researchers said the auction format might help explain why some found it so hard to resist over-eating.

‘Hungry participants offered higher bids because they were triggered by the immediate proximity of the auctioned cheese and its cheese-related stimuli,’ they wrote.

‘In other words, hunger could drive people to perceive food products as having more than their objective value, so they would be willing to pay more to obtain them.’