A recent study has found that the “hunger hormone” ghrelin may influence the economic choices people make.
The human research component of this study was quite limited, focused on a very small age-range and only female subjects. But the findings in this study seemed to line up with other research indicating that people with higher levels of ghrelin may make more impulsive decisions—perhaps especially in contexts where the choices they’re making are economic in nature.
In practice, this means that—according to the data we have so far, at least—this hormone seems to be associated with more impulsive choices related to value acquisition and management; in this particular study, that meant choosing to receive $20 today instead of $80 in two weeks when hungry (and thus, with higher levels of ghrelin) compared to the opposite when not hungry (with lower levels of ghrelin).
This specific economic decision relates to a sub-type of such decisions called “delayed gratification,” which means being willing to sacrifice some kind of immediate gain or pleasure in favor of receiving something better or more valuable at some point in the future.
Gratification delay has been linked, through other research, to concepts like self-control, willpower, patience, and impulse control; all behaviors that are linked to the larger, umbrella-concept of self-regulation.
Self-regulation means, essentially, being aware enough of our internal experience, state of mind, and capacity of body that we can make beneficial, sustainable decisions when it comes to our behaviors, choices, and exertions.
Establishing a healthful balance requires an often subconscious, but sometimes conscious awareness of our own state of mind and general wellness, and that awareness would seem to be distorted by the presence or lack of certain chemicals—especially hormones, which have been shown to influence everything from our state of energetic and sexual arousal to our level of aggression to our cognitive function.
Which isn’t terribly surprising, considering that hormones are signaling molecules that regulate various aspects of our physiology.
Nothing would function properly in our bodies or minds without these chemicals, because they help all the pieces—all the various organs and cells and chemical processes—interact with each other as a macro-level, holistic system. When these communication channels aren’t functioning optimally, elements of that larger system don’t have the information they need to keep things regulated and balanced, and the desired equilibrium can be upset or upended.
This study focusing on ghrelin, then, isn’t revolutionary: we already know that these chemicals are vital to our functioning and flourishing.
But it is interesting to consider the many aspects of our personalities and behaviors that we consider to be fundamentally representative of who we are, but which can nonetheless be tweaked or hamstrung by too much or too little of a given chemical; including those that are regulated by something as simple as whether or not we’ve eaten in the past few hours.
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