Navigation
Why do we eat comfort food? Exploring expectations regarding comfort food and their relationship with comfort eating frequency
Eating comfort food and expectations regarding comfort food
Eating comfort food is a frequent behavior in everyday life, but the reasons behind this habit are not fully understood. This study by Wu, Vartanian & Faasse (2025) explored individuals’ expectations about their preferred comfort foods and whether these expectations relate to how often they consume such foods. Additionally, the study examined possible gender differences in comfort food preferences (sweet vs. savory) and the frequency of comfort eating. An online survey of 214 participants asked them to identify their main comfort food, report how often they ate comfort food recently (past two weeks) and over the longer term, and rate their expectations of their comfort food across five categories: managing negative emotions, pleasure and reward, cognitive enhancement, boredom relief, and positive feelings. Results showed that while pleasure and reward, as well as positive feelings, were most strongly endorsed, these expectations had only weak links to the frequency of people eating comfort food. In contrast, expectations related to managing negative emotions, relieving boredom, and improving cognitive function were consistently and positively linked to comfort eating frequency, with the relief of boredom showing the strongest relationship. The authors found no significant gender differences in either food preference or frequency of comfort eating. In summary, although people view comfort food as a source of reward and positive feelings, their actual motivation for eating comfort food appears to be more closely tied to coping with negative emotions, boredom, and cognitive demands. [NPID: Comfort food, expectation, emotions, food choices, eating behavior]
Year: 2025
