Bottomless Bowls: Why Visual Cues of Portion Size May Influence Intake <sup>**</sup>
Wansink, Painter and North used self-refilling soup bowls to test whether visual cues about portion size change how much people eat without changing what they think they have eaten. Fifty-four participants ate from either a normal bowl or a bowl housed in a modified table that slowly and imperceptibly refilled as its contents were consumed. Those eating from the self-refilling bowls consumed substantially more soup, and despite eating around seventy-three per cent more they did not believe they had eaten more, nor did they report feeling more sated. The authors conclude that people use their eyes to count calories rather than their stomachs. A caution belongs on this page and this publication states it wherever the study appears. The institutional assurance behind the data from this laboratory was withdrawn in 2018, so the figures reported here are not treated as established by this vault, and a 2024 replication is used in their place.
Wansink, Painter and North used self-refilling soup bowls to test whether visual cues about portion size change how much people eat without changing what they think they have eaten. Fifty-four participants ate from either a normal bowl or a bowl housed in a modified table that slowly and imperceptibly refilled as its contents were consumed. Those eating from the self-refilling bowls consumed substantially more soup, and despite eating around seventy-three per cent more they did not believe they had eaten more, nor did they report feeling more sated. The authors conclude that people use their eyes to count calories rather than their stomachs. A caution belongs on this page and this publication states it wherever the study appears. The institutional assurance behind the data from this laboratory was withdrawn in 2018, so the figures reported here are not treated as established by this vault, and a 2024 replication is used in their place.
Written from the abstract, OpenAlex.
What our sources record
Reproduced as it was written when this source was checked, figures and all.
Wansink, B., Painter, J. E. & North, J. (2005). "Bottomless bowls: why visual cues of portion size may influence intake." Obesity Research, 13(1), 93-100. 54 participants. NOT USED AS EVIDENCE and cited here only as the study being replicated. Cornell University statement, 20 September 2018, on the validity of a set of the laboratory's papers and the availability of the original data; JAMA Network retraction notices, 19 September 2018, covering six of them. No retraction notice was found for this specific paper, and no independent confirmation of its data either.
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/10.1038/oby.2005.12
DOI: 10.1038/oby.2005.12