Plate Size and Color Suggestibility: The Delboeuf Illusion's Bias on Serving and Eating Behavior
This paper proposes that the effect of dinnerware size on how much people serve themselves is a version of a known visual illusion, the Delboeuf illusion, in which a circle looks larger or smaller depending on the ring around it. Across five studies it reports two opposing biases, over-serving on large plates and under-serving on small ones, varying with the gap between the edge of the food and the edge of the plate, and reports that attention and education do not remove the biases while changing the colour contrast between food, plate and tablecloth attenuates them. One fact governs how this page may be used. Numerous papers from the laboratory that produced this work have since been retracted or corrected following investigation of its data and analysis practices, so nothing from it should be cited here without independent corroboration. This vault keeps the record because the claim is widely repeated, and points instead to the Cochrane review on portion size.
This paper proposes that the effect of dinnerware size on how much people serve themselves is a version of a known visual illusion, the Delboeuf illusion, in which a circle looks larger or smaller depending on the ring around it. Across five studies it reports two opposing biases, over-serving on large plates and under-serving on small ones, varying with the gap between the edge of the food and the edge of the plate, and reports that attention and education do not remove the biases while changing the colour contrast between food, plate and tablecloth attenuates them. One fact governs how this page may be used. Numerous papers from the laboratory that produced this work have since been retracted or corrected following investigation of its data and analysis practices, so nothing from it should be cited here without independent corroboration. This vault keeps the record because the claim is widely repeated, and points instead to the Cochrane review on portion size.
Written from the abstract, OpenAlex.
What our sources record
Reproduced as it was written when this source was checked, figures and all.
van Ittersum, K. & Wansink, B. (2012). "Plate size and colour suggestibility: the Delboeuf illusion's bias on serving and eating behaviour." Journal of Consumer Research, 39(2), 215-228. COMPROMISED BY AUTHORSHIP. Listed so that it cannot be picked up by accident. Not used as evidence anywhere in this piece.
Where we use it
- Why You Are Hungry an Hour After a Big Lunch, Why We Crave
Reliability of this reference
The link below was matched against the publisher's record on title, first author and year, and all three agree.
The source
https://doi.org/10.1086/662615
DOI: 10.1086/662615