Social modelling of food intake. The role of familiarity of the dining partners and food type

Abstract

In a social eating context, people tend to model the food intake of their dining companions. In general, people tend to eat more when their dining companion eats more and less when their eating companion eats less. In the present paper we investigate 1) whether familiarity of dining partners affects modelling and 2) whether modelling is affected by whether familiar partners consume the same versus different foods. In both studies, female dyads completed a task together whilst having access to high energy dense snack foods. Modelling was observed regardless of the familiarity of the dining partners and food types consumed. These findings confirm that social modelling of food intake is a robust phenomenon that occurs even among familiar dining partners and when partners are consuming different types of snack food.

Keywords: Familiarity; Food intake; Matching; Social influence.