Social Norms And Eating

Food intake, both in quantity and type has been found to be affected by social influences. Social norms have been found to be very influential on our consumption of food, both on choice and intake (Higgs, 2015). There is evidence that eating with just one other person can influence our intake of food by 44% and this continues to increase as more people are present (DeCastro, 1997). DeCastro (1997) describes how simple behaviours are often increased by social influences. Eating is considered a simple behaviour, and animals have demonstrated eating more in the presence of others. Bayer (1929) presented an experiment with a chicken who was allowed to eat as much as wheat as desired. When a hungry chicken was introduced and began to eat, the first
These social norms often present the ‘right’ way to behave, and these can be presented by both our parents and our peers. In general, we learn many of our social and behavioural skills through observation of others and by modelling this behaviour (Laible, 2007). Herman & Polivy (2005) suggest that we very often use others food intake and behaviour as a guideline for our own eating behaviour. This is the case for what foods we choose to eat and also how much food we consume. It is important to evaluate the strengths of these social norms and whether we need to observe others directly to see significant effects. Finally, individual characteristics are likely affect the extent to which social influences change eating behaviour. It is unlikely that we are all influenced by social norms to the same
Questionnaires were used to establish food intake, motivations for eating, body satisfaction and parental control over food intake. Snack intake was measured through a score based on how often foods were eaten. These scores were given for healthy snacks and unhealthy snacks and then collated to give each child and parent a score. When the children and parent scores were compared there was a significant correlation between parent and child’s snack food intake. This was particularly presented in parents and child’s unhealthy snack food reported to have been eaten ‘yesterday’. Parental influence has also been demonstrated by Klesges et al (1991) who showed that children are likely to select different foods when being watched by their parents than when they are independently eating. This influence even continued when the children had the ‘threat’ of their parents watching, even if they were not