The Effect of Food on Test Anxiety

Proceeding from the literature on eating behavior and anxiety reduction, this study introduces food offering as a mode of intervention aimed at reducing anxiety. Two hypotheses were tested: (1) in an anxiety evoking test situation students will tend to consume more food than in a nonanxiety inducing situation such as a regular lecture; (2) eating food (i.e., peanut butter sandwiches) will result in a reduction of subjects' initial levels of test anxiety. Both hypotheses were confirmed. It also became apparent that the mere offering of food is conducive to some anxiety reduction, presumably due to the effect on the classroom atmosphere.