Does Hunger Contribute to Socioeconomic Gradients in Behavior?

Abstract

Recent research has uncovered many examples of socioeconomic gradients in behavior and psychological states. As yet there is no theoretical consensus on the nature of the causal processes that produce these gradients. Here, I present the hunger hypothesis, namely the claim that part of the reason that people of lower socioeconomic position behave and feel as they do is that they are relatively often hungry. The hunger hypothesis applies in particular to impulsivity-hyperactivity, irritability-aggression, anxiety, and persistent narcotic use, all of which have been found to show socioeconomic gradients. I review multiple lines of evidence showing that hunger produces strong increases in these outcomes. I also review the literatures on food insufficiency and food insecurity to show that, within affluent societies, the poor experience a substantial burden of hunger, despite obtaining sufficient or excess calories on average. This leads to the distinctive prediction that hunger is an important mediator of the relationships between socioeconomic variables and the behavioral/psychological outcomes. This approach has a number of far-reaching implications, not least that some behavioral and psychological differences between social groups, though persistent under current economic arrangements, are potentially highly reversible with changes to the distribution of financial resources and food.

Hunger and socioeconomic background additively predict impulsivity in humans

“…We recommend that further investigation is needed into the differences in response seen in these two types of tasks. It has also previously been hypothesised that individuals of lower socioeconomic status may simply be hungrier than other individuals, which may underlie differences seen in impulsivity (Nettle, 2017). We tested for this across all three of our studies finding no evidence of an association between current hunger and childhood socioeconomic statues when controlling for the amount of time since people had last eaten.…”

“…As it has previously been suggested that hunger and measures of socioeconomic status may be associated (Nettle 2017) we initially ran a model to see if hunger was predicted by childhood IMD, whilst controlling for time since participants had last eaten, finding that time since a person had eaten did predict hunger but childhood IMD did not (Appendix, Table 5, Model 1).…”

“…It is important to understand how hunger and socioeconomic background may interact to influence delay discounting as it has been suggested that people from poorer backgrounds may also be exposed to greater hunger (Nettle 2017). For example, hunger makes all individuals highly impulsive, removing the deprivation gradient.…”

Depression for Surviving Ancestral Hardships

“…"Within affluent societies the poor experience a substantial burden of hunger, despite obtaining sufficient or excess calories on average" (Nettle, 2017) . Considered by itself, abundant food produced by other people may only modestly convince the mood system of food security.…”

Hunger affects social decisions in a multi-round Public Goods Game but not a single-shot Ultimatum Game

“…Current support for the existence of such a direct effect is weak (Häusser et al, 2019). However, even in the absence of such a direct effect, there are pathways by which hunger could cause cooperation to break down in real-world settings, pathways which stem from the fact that emotional responses to the behaviour of others have often been found to be different in hungry people (Nettle, 2017). For example, hungry people might have the same initial prosocial motivations as non-hungry people, but respond more negatively or less forgivingly to the behaviour of others, leading to a downwards spiral of cooperation.…”