Effects of the Presence of Others on Food Intake: A Normative Interpretation.
Peter Herman, Deborah Roth and Janet Polivy reviewed research on how the presence of other people affects how much we eat, which had produced three apparently conflicting findings. Social facilitation studies found people eating more in groups than alone. Modelling studies found intake rising or falling with how much companions ate. Impression-management studies found people eating less when they wanted to make a good impression. The authors reconcile the three with a model of inhibitory norms: with tasty food available and no clear signal of fullness, people look outward to cues in their surroundings to decide when to stop, and socially supplied norms can account for either more or less eating depending on the situation. It is a review of existing studies rather than a new experiment, so its contribution is the model that fits them, not fresh evidence.
Peter Herman, Deborah Roth and Janet Polivy reviewed research on how the presence of other people affects how much we eat, which had produced three apparently conflicting findings. Social facilitation studies found people eating more in groups than alone. Modelling studies found intake rising or falling with how much companions ate. Impression-management studies found people eating less when they wanted to make a good impression. The authors reconcile the three with a model of inhibitory norms: with tasty food available and no clear signal of fullness, people look outward to cues in their surroundings to decide when to stop, and socially supplied norms can account for either more or less eating depending on the situation. It is a review of existing studies rather than a new experiment, so its contribution is the model that fits them, not fresh evidence.
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Herman, C. P., Roth, D. A., & Polivy, J. (2003). 'Effects of the presence of others on food intake: a normative interpretation.' Psychological Bulletin, 129(6), 873-886. Reviews social facilitation, modelling and impression-management literatures and reconciles them through a model of inhibitory norms: in the presence of palatable food and the absence of clear satiety signals, people look outward to environmental cues to determine when to stop eating, and socially derived inhibitory norms can account for either increased or decreased intake. Verified at the published record 2026-10-06. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.129.6.873
Where we use it
- Social Eating and the Cue to Stop, Why We Crave
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https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.129.6.873
DOI: 10.1037/0033-2909.129.6.873