Eating Heavily: Men Eat More in the Company of Women

Sexual selection has been commonly considered by evolutionary psychologists interested in eating disorders among women; however, comparable attention has not been paid to problematic eating by men. We present the results of a field study through which we find that men eat more food when sharing a me...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Evolutionary psychological science 2016-03, Vol.2 (1), p.38-46
Main Authors: Kniffin, Kevin M., Sigirci, Ozge, Wansink, Brian
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anorexia
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Competition
Eating behavior
Elk
Evolutionary psychology
Females
Field study
Food
Gastrointestinal surgery
Gender differences
Hypotheses
Influence
Males
Personality and Social Psychology
Psychology
Research Article
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Sexual selection has been commonly considered by evolutionary psychologists interested in eating disorders among women; however, comparable attention has not been paid to problematic eating by men. We present the results of a field study through which we find that men eat more food when sharing a meal with women than with men. Notably, men appear to eat larger quantities of both unhealthy (pizza) and healthy (salad) food when in the company of women. More specifically, men eating with women ate 93% more pizza (1.44 more slices) and 86% more salad. Additionally, while women do not eat significantly differently as a function of the sex of their dining partners, women eating with men tended to estimate themselves to have eaten more and reported feeling like they were rushed and overate. In addition to expanding upon previous research concerning women’s eating behaviors, our findings concerning male overconsumption in the presence of women appear to present an example of self-handicap behavior.
ISSN:2198-9885
2198-9885
DOI:10.1007/s40806-015-0035-3