Comfort eating or toasting to your success? Self-gifting choices vary between good and bad days

TL;DR

People choose different self-gifts based on whether they had a good or bad day, with comfort foods and drinks being preferred after a bad day.

Contribution

This study identifies how imagined day quality influences specific self-gifting behaviors, linking them to self-reward or self-console motivations.

Findings

Participants were more likely to choose indulgent food/alcohol and a bubble bath after imagining a bad day.

Takeaway food was the only item chosen for both self-reward and self-console motivations.

Self-gifting behaviors varied significantly based on the imagined day's quality.

Abstract

Previous research suggests people are motivated to self-gift to either reward or console themselves. Little research has considered whether these motivations predict different types of food/alcohol or non-food self-gifting behaviors. In the current study, 280 participants were recruited online and randomly assigned to imagine either a good, bad or average (control) day at work. Participants then reported their likelihood/probability of engaging in different self-gifting behaviors (an alcoholic drink, a takeaway, a chocolate bar, an online shopping spree and a bubble bath). Relevant predictor variables (deservingness, self-esteem and the three-factor eating questionnaire) and demographic variables (age and gender) were also controlled for in the analysis. Results revealed that participants opted to self-gift food/alcohol and non-food, over and above other predictor variables, depending on the type of day they imagined. After imagining a bad (versus an average) day, participants were more likely to want to indulge in an alcoholic drink, a takeaway, a chocolate bar and a bubble bath, suggesting these items are primarily motivated by a desire for self- console. Indulging in a takeaway was the only self-gifting item that was motivated by both a desire to self-reward and self-console. The implications of these findings are discussed.

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