Healthy eating behaviors and self-control in scarcity: The protective effects of self-compassion

Maintaining healthy eating habits requires self-control and this process can become unsuccessful in certain stressful situations (e.g., economic scarcity). This study tested whether self-compassion can buffer the negative impacts of economic scarcity on healthy eating behaviors and self-control. In the correlational Study 1 (n = 304) based on self-reports, a mediating effect of self-control between economic scarcity and healthy eating behaviors was found in females but not males, and that self-compassion moderated the direct relationship between economic scarcity and healthy eating behaviors in females. No significant moderated mediation effect was found. In Study 2, female participants (n = 113) completed economic scarcity (ES) (or abundance) and self-compassion (SC) (or writing-control (WC)) manipulations and a food-selection task. The ES + WC group chose more high-calorie food than the economic abundance (EA) + WC group and the ES + SC group, and the EA + SC group also selected more high-calorie food compared with the EA + WC group and the ES + SC group. In Study 3 (n = 136), similar manipulations and a dot-mixed task were used to measure self-control, and the ES + SC group showed higher accuracy than the ES + audio-control (AC) group at a trend level. These findings support the protective role of self-compassion in healthy eating behaviors and self-control impairments resulted from economic scarcity, which offer promise for promoting healthy lifestyles among individuals living in scarcity.