Effects of social influence on eating in couples, friends and strangers

Previous research indicates that both males and females eat less in the presence of a stranger of the opposite sex than in the presence of a same sex. Another literature shows that people tend to model or matching the amount eaten by others. The extent to which people are eager to inhibit their food consumption or match other's intake is likely to vary as a function of the characteristics of the co-eater. The present study examines how males and females adjust their level of eating as a function of their familiarity with and the gender of their eating companion, using a free-eating paradigm. Findings indicated that both the familiarity between co-eaters and the participants' gender predicted food consumption. Although unfamiliarity suppressed both men's and women's food intakes, the matching effect operated only when a female co-eater was involved. We conclude that the overarching motive (i.e., producing a positive impression) does not necessarily vary substantially across the various gender-familiarity combinations, but that the means or strategies (eating lightly and or matching of intake) by which the person accomplishes it and the strength of the motive vary as a function of the audience. In other words, in some social contexts self-enhancing motives can be served by restricting intake as well as through ingratiatory strategies such as attitudinal or behavioral conformity.

[1]  Michael Lewis,et al.  Lying and deception in everyday life , 1993 .

[2]  Richard Gonzalez,et al.  Correlational analysis of dyad-level data in the exchangeable case. , 1995 .

[3]  J. Polivy,et al.  Effects of the presence of others on food intake: a normative interpretation. , 2003, Psychological bulletin.

[4]  J. M. Jellison,et al.  A Self-Presentation Interpretation of the Seeking of Social Approval , 1978 .

[5]  M. Hebl,et al.  Conformity to Sex-Typed Norms , Affect , and the Self-Concept , 1997 .

[6]  S. Chaiken,et al.  Women, but not Men, Are What They Eat , 1987 .

[7]  S. Chaiken,et al.  Eating, social motives, and self-presentation in women and men , 1990 .

[8]  J. M. de Castro,et al.  Family and friends produce greater social facilitation of food intake than other companions. , 1994, Physiology & behavior.

[9]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  The effect of nonindependence on significance testing in dyadic research. , 1995 .

[10]  D. Hedeker,et al.  MIXREG: a computer program for mixed-effects regression analysis with autocorrelated errors. , 1996, Computer methods and programs in biomedicine.

[11]  C. Peter Herman,et al.  Social Facilitation of Eating Among Friends and Strangers , 1994, Appetite.

[12]  B. R. Schlenker,et al.  Self-presentation: managing the impression of consistency when reality interferes with self-enhancement. , 1975, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[13]  J. M. de Castro.  Social facilitation of duration and size but not rate of the spontaneous meal intake of humans. , 1990, Physiology & behavior.

[14]  W. DeJong.  Obesity as a characterological stigma: the issue of responsibility and judgments of task performance. , 1993, Psychological reports.

[15]  S. Madey,et al.  Illusory Correlations in Perceptions of Obese and Hypertensive Patients’ Noncooperative Behaviors1 , 1999 .

[16]  C. Boyatzis,et al.  Preschool children's decoding of facial emotions. , 1993, The Journal of genetic psychology.

[17]  R. Baumeister,et al.  What do men want? Gender differences and two spheres of belongingness: comment on Cross and Madson (1997) , 1997, Psychological bulletin.

[18]  K. Brownell,et al.  Impact of perceived consensus on stereotypes about obese people: a new approach for reducing bias. , 2005, Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association.

[19]  Mark Muraven,et al.  When modesty prevails: Differential favorability of self-presentation to friends and strangers. , 1995 .

[20]  A. Greenwald,et al.  Psychological perspectives on the self , 1982 .

[21]  A. Eagly.  Sex differences in influenceability. , 1978 .

[22]  A. Eagly.  Sex differences in social behavior : a social-role interpretation , 1987 .

[23]  D. Hedeker,et al.  Application of random-effects probit regression models. , 1994, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[24]  Robin M. Kowalski,et al.  Impression management: A literature review and two-component model. , 1990 .

[25]  D. Hedeker,et al.  Random-effects regression models for clustered data with an example from smoking prevention research. , 1994, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[26]  Rick Bell,et al.  Meal duration mediates the effect of “social facilitation” on eating in humans , 2006, Appetite.

[27]  R. Feldman,et al.  Self-Presentational Goals, Self-Monitoring, and Nonverbal Behavior , 1997 .

[28]  J. Fleiss,et al.  Intraclass correlations: uses in assessing rater reliability. , 1979, Psychological bulletin.

[29]  Michael Sunnafrank,et al.  At First Sight: Persistent Relational Effects of Get-Acquainted Conversations , 2004 .

[30]  D. Hedeker.  A mixed‐effects multinomial logistic regression model , 2003, Statistics in medicine.

[31]  J. Polivy,et al.  Self-presentational conflict in social eating situations: a normative perspective , 2001, Appetite.

[32]  S. Cross,et al.  Models of the self: self-construals and gender. , 1997, Psychological bulletin.

[33]  Michael Sunnafrank,et al.  Interpersonal Attraction and Attitude Similarity: A Communication-Based Assessment , 1991 .

[34]  Psychological aspects of obesity: A handbook , 1982 .

[35]  Mark H. Davis,et al.  Stability and change in adolescent self-consciousness and empathy , 1991 .

[36]  M. Leary,et al.  Self-presentation in everyday interactions: effects of target familiarity and gender composition. , 1994, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[37]  C. Peter Herman,et al.  Is the effect of a social model on eating attenuated by hunger? , 1991, Appetite.

[38]  S. Chaiken,et al.  Eating lightly" and the self-presentation of femininity. , 1987 .

[39]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  Consequences of violating the independence assumption in analysis of variance. , 1986 .

[40]  R. Nisbett,et al.  Cognitive and Social Determinants of Food Intake , 1974 .

[41]  B. Bock,et al.  Women and men are what they eat: The effects of gender and reported meal size on perceived characteristics , 1995 .

[42]  M. Hebl,et al.  The Stigma of Obesity in Women: The Difference is Black and White , 1998 .

[43]  Jennifer A. Epstein,et al.  Sex differences in lying: How women and men deal with the dilemma of deceit. , 1993 .

[44]  R. Exline,et al.  Visual interaction: The glances of power and preference. , 1971 .

[45]  D. Hedeker,et al.  A random-effects ordinal regression model for multilevel analysis. , 1994, Biometrics.

[46]  B. Rosenthal,et al.  Modeling influences on eating behavior. , 1979, Addictive behaviors.

[47]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  Dyadic Data Analysis , 2006 .

[48]  M. Harris.  Is Love Seen as Different for the Obese?1 , 1990 .

[49]  Modeling influences on the eating behavior of successful and unsuccessful dieters and untreated normal weight individuals. , 1979, Addictive behaviors.

[50]  J. Conger,et al.  The effect of social cues on the eating behavior of obese and normal subjects. , 1980, Journal of personality.

[51]  Alice H. Eagly,et al.  Gender and Social Influence: A Social Psychological Analysis. , 1983 .