Danish researchers found that hungry students were more likely to endorse social welfare policies than contributing their own money. The researchers wanted to explore the possibility that we are evolutionarily wired to want to share food. Their logic? Before we had a reliable food supply, people living in small communities often asked others to share food in situations of temporary hunger. They tested 104 university students who fasted for four hours then were given soft drinks. Half got drinks with carbohydrates, the other half got drinks with an artificial sweetener. After that, the researchers asked the students questions about social welfare. The students who had gotten the artificial sweeteners — and thus had lower blood glucose levels and more hunger — expressed stronger support for social welfare. But when they gave the hungry people actual money, they did not share more — apparently, the researchers concluded, hunger increased people's expression of support for social welfare, but it didn't necessarily spur them on to concrete action.
Source: NPR, 11/13/13, Hunger
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