It is well known that a large portion of the population elevates their intake of high energy-dense foods during times of stress; however, it is understudied whether stress affects the reinforcing value of a food reward. Further knowledge of this relationship may help us better understand the positive correlation between reinforcing value of food and obesity. Therefore, it was tested if an acute stressor would increase the reinforcing value of low or high energy-dense food. Participants ( = 70) were randomized to a stress or no-stress condition after which they were allowed to work to gain access to a food reward and reading time. To determine if high energy-dense food was specifically affected, half the participants from each stress manipulation were randomly assigned to work for either grapes or chocolate candies. Participants in the stress condition worked less for food access than those in the no-stress condition, for both low and high energy-dense foods, but stress did not affect the reinforcing value of reading time. These results indicate that, contrary to our hypothesis, in a sample of college students, an acute stressor decreased reinforcing value of food, with no difference between a low and high energy-dense food item.

中文翻译：

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在一项随机对照试验中，急性社会压力会降低大学生高能量密度和低能量密度食物的强化价值

众所周知，很大一部分人在压力时期会增加高能量密度食物的摄入量。然而，人们对压力是否会影响食物奖励的强化价值的研究还不够。对这种关系的进一步了解可能有助于我们更好地理解食物的强化价值与肥胖之间的正相关性。因此，我们测试了急性应激源是否会增加低能量密度或高能量密度食物的强化价值。参与者（= 70）被随机分配到压力或无压力条件下，之后他们被允许工作以获得食物奖励和阅读时间。为了确定高能量密度食物是否受到特别影响，每次压力处理的一半参与者被随机分配去吃葡萄或巧克力糖。无论是低能量密度食物还是高能量密度食物，压力条件下的参与者比无压力条件下的参与者在获取食物方面的工作量要少，但压力并不影响阅读时间的强化价值。这些结果表明，与我们的假设相反，在大学生样本中，急性压力源降低了食物的强化价值，低能量密度和高能量密度的食物之间没有差异。