This doesn't seem like new research because it seems to me that it's a given that eating and shopping are relatively common coping mechanisms. It's not unusual to hear stories about women addicted to shopping or food. I suppose men share these same problems but perhaps 1) less numerously, 2) less excessively, or 3) less conspicuously (but I haven't researched this so I'm just stabbing blindly).

There was a recent New Scientist article about how thinking about death or dying can spur buying or consuming behavior. Students wrote essays about either their own death or a trip to the dentist (I think it's funny that the options were death or dentist). After these kids wrote these essays, they found that people who had written about their death ate more cookies when given the opportunity, and also hypothetically purchased more items than those who wrote about the dentist.

But they also evaluated the students' self esteem. The ones that had low self esteem and had to write about death were more excessive in their behaviors -- ate more cookies, bought more things -- as a way of "subconsciously escaping self awareness, which is heightened by thoughts of dying". Those with high self esteem weren't really affected by the thoughts of death.

For those affected, it wasn't just the thought of their own death, but watching clips of death related news also stimulated this consumption. I love the quote at the end the piece which has one of the research professors (who, btw, has a PhD in psychology and is a professor of Marketing at his university) saying, gosh, I hope marketing folks don't exploit this by placing food ads right after the news. Really? But isn't that your job -- to teach people how to best market their goods?

Thoughts of death make us eat more cookies full article at New Scientist