People commonly cope with emotional stress by eating too much, or by smoking or drinking too much.
In the past, psychologists have offered several explanations as to why people engage in harmful behaviors when faced with emotional stress. However, new research indicates that people may engage in destructive behaviors simply because they are trying to make themselves feel better. In their experiment, undergraduate research participants were told that they were going to be participating in two studies. The first study was said to involve emotional intelligence and imagination. In this part of the experiment, researchers instructed half of the participants to read a sad story about a driver who accidentally killed a small child and then to imagine themselves as the driver.