The persistence of and resistance to social norms regarding the appropriate amount to Eat: A preliminary investigation.

We conducted a preliminary investigation on the resistance to, and persistence of, social influence regarding the appropriate amount to eat, defined in terms of eating an amount similar to that eaten by a confederate. Participants ate pizza both alone and in the presence of remote confederates presenting either a high or low eating norm. In the portion of the experiment examining resistance to social influence, participants given an initial opportunity to form a personal eating norm by eating alone for one session in the absence of social influence were no more resistant to low eating norms than were those who had no such opportunity; however, those who ate alone for two or three prior sessions did show resistance.

Are large portions responsible for the obesity epidemic?

Large portion sizes are frequently blamed for the obesity epidemic. In this paper, we examine the culpability of large portion sizes. It is true that portion sizes have increased during the obesity epidemic, but there is as yet little evidence that exposure to large portions produces significant weight gain.

Mechanisms underlying the portion-size effect.

The portion-size effect (PSE) refers to the fact that people eat more when served larger portions. This effect is neither obvious nor artifactual. We examine the prevailing explanations (or underlying mechanisms) that have been offered for the PSE.

"She got more than me". Social comparison and the social context of eating.

Eating is a social activity for most people. Other people influence what and how much an individual chooses and eats. Such social influence on eating has long been recognized and studied, but we contend here that one important social influence factor, social comparison, has been largely overlooked by researchers.

Comparing live and remote models in eating conformity research.

Research demonstrates that people conform to how much other people eat. This conformity occurs in the presence of other people (live model) and when people view information about how much food prior participants ate (remote models). The assumption in the literature has been that remote models produce a similar effect to live models, but this has never been tested.

The effects of degree of acquaintance, plate size, and sharing on food intake.

This study examined the effects of degree of acquaintance, plate size, and sharing on the amount of pasta individuals served themselves and subsequently consumed and whether or not they took second helpings. Fifty-seven pairs of female participants ate a meal of pasta; the members of each pair were either friends or strangers. During the meal, they served themselves either from a common serving bowl or from individual serving bowls and onto either small or large plates.

Internal and external moderators of the effect of variety on food intake.

Many factors contribute to how much we eat. One such factor is the variety of different foods available. The current article reviews the variety literature with a specific focus on the factors that moderate the effects of variety on food intake and that moderate the processes that may underlie the variety effect (i.

Competition affects food choice in women.

Objective: To examine women's food choices after exposure to a threatening upward social comparison in an achievement situation.

Method: Female university students performed three tasks in the presence of a confederate; for some, the situation was competitive and they were made to feel the confederate was likely to outperform them, whereas the remainder performed under noncompetitive circumstances. After completing the tasks, all participants chose a food to eat in a supposedly unrelated taste test.

The relationship between restrained eating, pleasure associated with eating, and well-being re-visited.

Appleton and McGowan [Appleton, K. M. & McGowan, L.

Perceptions of undereaters: a matter of perspective?

We assume that people, to convey positive impressions of themselves, use the amounts eaten by others as limits beyond which their eating may be deemed excessive. One should, therefore, prefer eating partners who eat a lot because others' large intake renders one's own eating nonexcessive. Two studies were conducted to test this hypothesis.

Wake up and smell the cookies. Effects of olfactory food-cue exposure in restrained and unrestrained eaters.

Few factors have been identified that bolster self-control processes and prevent overeating in restrained eaters; however, research on counteractive-control theory suggests that exposure to food cues may represent such a protective factor. To further investigate the effects of food-cue exposure, restrained and unrestrained eaters were randomly assigned to either a food-cue or no-cue condition, and their intake was measured. The results indicated that food-cue-exposed restrained eaters ate less than did non-exposed restrained eaters.

Effects of food-cue exposure on dieting-related goals: a limitation to counteractive-control theory.

The present study investigated the effects of exposure to a food cue on the self-reported importance of dieting in those with low, medium, and high levels of dietary restraint. The results indicated that exposure to a food cue bolstered dieting-related goals in those who were low in dietary restraint but had no effect on the importance of dieting-related goals for those with medium or high levels of dietary restraint. The results demonstrate that exposure to temptations may differentially affect self-control processes depending on an individuals' level of dietary restraint.

Cognitive schemas: how can we use them to improve children's acceptance of diverse and unfamiliar foods?

Foods represent important stimuli for humans, especially for human children. After weaning, it is important that children quickly acquire knowledge about their food environment to avoid ingesting potentially dangerous substances. This paper discusses this process and its implications in terms of schemas.

The role of familiarity on modeling of eating and food consumption in children.

This study investigates the effects of peer and sibling influence on the cookie intake of normal-weight children. A total of 44 children (24 girls and 20 boys) aged 5-11 participated in this study. Children played a sorting task while being exposed to a large amount of cookies.

Vulnerability to freshman weight gain as a function of dietary restraint and residence.

Although many studies have found that students gain weight during their first year at college, many others have not. Participants in the present study were classified according to their scores on the Herman/Polivy Restraint Scale and their place of residence-at home or on campus. Body weight was assessed early in the academic year and five months later.

Effects of social influence on eating in couples, friends and strangers.

Previous research indicates that both males and females eat less in the presence of a stranger of the opposite sex than in the presence of a same sex. Another literature shows that people tend to model or matching the amount eaten by others. The extent to which people are eager to inhibit their food consumption or match other's intake is likely to vary as a function of the characteristics of the co-eater.

Meal schemas during a preload decrease subsequent eating.

Two studies examined the effects of the induction of a meal schema on participants' behavior. In the first, participants ate identical preloads either in a traditional meal context or in a non-meal ("tasting session") context where the usual cues associated with meals, such as the use of dishes/utensils and being seated at a table, were present or absent, respectively. In a questionnaire assessing their impressions of the situation, participants in the meal condition gave evidence of the activation of a meal schema while the latter did not.

Influence of clear versus ambiguous normative information on food intake.

Two studies were conducted in order to examine the conditions under which social norms operate to control people's otherwise prepotent response to maximize eating. The social-normative model of eating assumes that people will follow one of two possible norms for "appropriate" eating behavior: the norm to eat minimally and the norm to avoid eating excessively. In Experiment 1, it was predicted that amounts eaten would be bimodally distributed (with the modes at or just below the two amounts chosen to represent minimal and excessive eating).

Meal duration mediates the effect of "social facilitation" on eating in humans.

This experiment examined the 'time extension' explanation for the social facilitation effect, which is that people eat more as the number of co-eaters increases. Seventy male and 62 female participants ate a lunch consisting of pizza, cookies, and bottled water, alone or in (same-gender) groups of two or four and were given either 12 or 36 min in which to do so. The independent variables were gender, group size, and meal duration.

"Ugh! That's disgusting!": Identification of the characteristics of foods underlying rejections based on disgust.

Previous research has demonstrated that individuals' beliefs about the disgusting properties of foods play a central role in predicting willingness to eat novel foods of either animal or non-animal origin (Martins & Pliner, in press). The present study aimed to identify what characteristics of foods make individuals perceive them as disgusting. In this study, participants read a set of scenarios designed to depict potentially disgusting foods; participants in Sample 1 rated the perceived disgustingness of the foods while participants in Sample 2 rated the foods on a variety of attributes relevant to theoretical conceptions of disgust.

Human food choices: an examination of the factors underlying acceptance/rejection of novel and familiar animal and nonanimal foods.

Two studies, aimed at increasing our knowledge of the factors that contribute to acceptance of novel foods were conducted. In Study 1, male and female participants were presented with familiar and novel animal and nonanimal foods and were asked to rate these foods on a variety of measures including: beliefs about the foods, feelings to the thought of ingesting the foods, and willingness to try the foods. Results demonstrated that willingness to try familiar nonanimal foods was predicted by beliefs about the negative sensory properties of the foods and joy elicited by the thought of eating them.

The effects of meal size and body size on individuals' impressions of males and females.

Male and female participants provided impression ratings for either a normal-weight or overweight male or female target, who was portrayed as eating either small or large meals. Males rated normal-weight targets as more physically attractive than overweight targets, whereas ratings of physical attractiveness were unaffected by the body size manipulation among female participants. In addition, among male targets, the overweight large eater was rated the least socially attractive.

Influence of social norms and palatability on amount consumed and food choice.

In two parallel studies, we examined the effect of social influence and palatability on amount consumed and on food choice. In Experiment 1, which looked at amount consumed, participants were provided with either palatable or unpalatable food; they were also given information about how much previous participants had eaten (large or small amounts) or were given no information. In the case of palatable food, participants ate more when led to believe that prior participants had eaten a great deal than when led to believe that prior participants had eaten small amounts or when provided with no information.

Liking and memory for musical stimuli as a function of exposure.

Three experiments examined changes in liking and memory for music as a function of number of previous exposures, the ecological validity of the music, and whether the exposure phase required focused or incidental listening. After incidental listening, liking ratings were higher for music heard more often in the exposure phase and this association was stronger as ecological validity increased. After focused listening, liking ratings followed an inverted U-shaped function of exposure for the most ecologically valid stimuli (initial increases followed by decreases), but this curvilinear function was attenuated or nonexistent for less valid stimuli.

Time to eat: the relationship between the number of people eating and meal duration in three lunch settings.

We conducted an observational study of customers in three different types of lunch settings: a worksite cafeteria, a fast-food restaurant, and a moderately priced restaurant, and assessed the relationship between meal duration and the number of people eating at each table (group size). Results suggest a significant positive correlation between group size and meal duration, collapsing over eating settings. Analysis of variance yielded significant main effects of both eating setting and of group size, indicating that meal durations were longest in the moderately priced restaurant and shortest in the fast-food restaurant.