Multiple studies demonstrate that negative emotional states such as stress and boredom trigger comfort eating and the consumption of unhealthy foods.
The retrieved papers consistently support the claim that stress and boredom correlate with comfort eating. Papers [1] and [6] directly link emotional distress, stress, and negative emotions like boredom to increased unhealthy food and comfort food consumption, while paper [4] shows that people explicitly expect comfort eating to alleviate boredom and manage negative affect, directly motivating the behavior.