A new US study has revealed that married couples with lower levels of blood sugar have the tendency to often become angry over trivial issues and are more likely to become aggressive against their spouses.

The study highlighted the fact that hunger attributable to low levels of blood glucose may cause marital arguments, confrontations and some domestic violence, said Brad Bushman, lead author and professor of communication and psychology at the Ohio State University.

There is a slang term for the angry behavior associated with the hunger caused by low levels of blood glucose called as 'hangry' (hungry + angry). So, it could be rightly said that hunger has the ability to make people cranky.

The conclusion was derived from the study that involved 107 married couples. The study saw each participant given with a voodoo doll that represented their spouses. The participants were also given 51 pins and their anger was measured on the basis of how many pins they inserted in the doll.

After the end of each day for 21 days, the researchers measured the level of participants' anger based on how many pins they inserted in the voodoo doll.

The participants did not have their real spouses present during the study. A glucose meter was also used to measure the glucose levels of the participants before breakfast and every evening before going to the bed for 21 days.

It was found that participants with lower blood glucose inserted more pins in the doll. "When they had lower blood glucose, they felt angrier and took it out on the dolls representing their spouse. Even those who reported they had good relationships with their spouses were more likely to express anger if their blood glucose levels were lower", said Bushman. The findings of the study have been published in the US Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.