Despite many empirical studies on emotional eating (eating in response
to negative emotions), the very basic question of whether negative emotions affect eating, and
in whom, remains unclear. The current meta-analysis assessed the state of knowledge concerning
the effect of negative emotions on eating in the non-eating disordered population. To this end,
published reports on experimental studies that investigated the causal effect of negative
emotions on eating behavior in non-eating disordered participants were included (k = 20). The
moderating impact of individual differences in restrained eaters (k = 10), unrestrained eaters
(k = 9), and obese individuals (k = 5) was assessed. Results revealed that the general main
effect of negative emotions on food intake was not significant (d = .068). Additionally, there
was no significant effect for restrained/unrestrained eaters (d = .219 / d = .168), or obese
participants (d = -.101). These findings indicate that negative emotions do not affect eating
patterns in non-eating disordered samples. However, qualitatively good studies are called for
in order to achieve more homogeneous effect sizes for the individual difference
measures.
