If you have a slow metabolism, avoid those with fast ones....

Explore how the food choices of others, influenced by body type and peer groups, impact your eating habits and portion sizes.

Google NewsGoogle News Preferred Source

Newsletter

Sign up for our email newsletter for the latest science news

Sign Up

Seems to be the upshot of this finding, I'll Have What She's Having: Effects of Social Influence and Body Type on the Food Choices of Others:

This research examines how the body type of consumers affects the food consumption of other consumers around them. We find that consumers anchor on the quantities others around them select but that these portions are adjusted according to the body type of the other consumer. We find that people choose a larger portion following another consumer who first selects a large quantity but that this portion is significantly smaller if the other is obese than if she is thin. We also find that the adjustment is more pronounced for consumers who are low in appearance self‐esteem and that it is attenuated under cognitive load.

The influence of peer groups on how you eat, and what you eat, and how much you eat, is obviously an important issue to be investigated. Too much of the discussion of food focuses on individual actions abstracted from ecological context. Environmental cues no doubt reshape the way one implements heuristics which allow for choice, even if there is also an innate individual disposition.

Stay Curious

JoinOur List

Sign up for our weekly science updates

View our Privacy Policy

SubscribeTo The Magazine

Save up to 40% off the cover price when you subscribe to Discover magazine.

Subscribe