Researchers from Cornell University's Food and Brand Lab found that study participants snacked on double the number of calories when standing¹ in a messy kitchen compared to when they stood in an orderly one.

 

The researchers had 98 women spend 10 minutes in a kitchen, under the guise² of asking them to wait for someone. Half of the participants stood in a cluttered³ kitchen, which was scattered⁴ with piles of newspapers and dirty dishes and had a ringing phone. The other half of the women waited in an organized kitchen.

 

Both kitchens contained bowls of crackers⁵, cookies and carrots, laid out for the participants to munch⁶ on. Each woman in the chaotic⁷ environment ate twice as many cookies -- a total of 53 more calories -- compared to those in the clean kitchen.

 

Why did this happen?

 

"Being in a chaotic environment and feeling out of control is bad for diets," psychology⁸ professor and study author Lenny Vartanian said in a statement. "It seems to lead people to think, 'Everything else is out of control, so why shouldn't I be?'”

 

Vartanian said he suspects the same behavior would be true for men, but he'd need to confirm it with research.

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