CHICAGO, March 19 (UPI) -- Choosing a healthy dessert may increase the likelihood a person will pick an after-dinner movie with anger and revenge themes, U.S. researchers say.
David Gal of Northwestern University and Wendy Liu of University of California, San Diego, say exerting self-control such as choosing an apple over a candy bar increases the likelihood to choosing movies in involving anger and revenge than a romantic comedy.
The study, published in the Journal of Consumer Research, also found people who make an effort to exert self-control are attracted to aggressive art and they don't appreciate messages that nag them to control their behavior.
"Research has shown that exerting self-control makes people more likely to behave aggressively toward others and people on diets are known to be irritable and quick to anger," the authors say in a statement.
The researchers found that people who exerted self-control were more interested in looking at angry facial expressions, were more persuaded by anger-framed appeals -- if funds are not increased for police training, more criminals will escape prison, for example -- and expressed more irritation at a message that used controlling language -- words such as "you ought to," "need to" and "must" -- to convince them to change their exercise habits.
