Men Tend To Consume More Food In The Presence Of Women
When most people think of an eating disorder, they think of a disease that mostly strikes women who restrict the amount of food they eat or who purge after eating a meal. However, eating disorders also involve overeating, and one particular study concludes that men tend to consume more food while eating in the presence of women than they eat in front of other men. Researchers believe intersexual selection could have something to do with how much or how little a person consumes in the presences of the same gender.
Researchers gathered information from 133 adults, 74 of which were male, and 59 were female. The participants were between the ages of 18-81. Each participant was asked
two questions, why they chose this particular restaurant and what other restaurants did they consider for lunch.
This study uses two hypotheses’, one that considers the amount of food men consume while eating in the presence of women, and the other hypothesis evaluates how much food men eat while in the presence of other men, as opposed to the presence of women. Researchers discovered that men tend to consume larger quantities of both healthy and unhealthy foods while dining in the presence of a woman. Even just one woman in a group of men can influence how much food the men consumed. More specifically, the men who were a part of this study were found to have eaten 93% more pizza and 86% more salad while eating when a woman was present.
The findings of this study could lead us to a deeper understanding of the factors that lead to obesity and its relation to intersexual selection or competition. We all have to eat to live but at what point does eating pose a public or private health risk? Researchers believe that their findings of men eating more food in the presence of women are tied to the fact that this is a self-handicapping behavior.
Kniffin, K. M., Sigirci, O., & Wansink, B. (2015, November). Eating Heavily: Men Eat More in the Company of Women. Evolutionary Psychological Science, 1-9. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40806-015-0035-3