Your Fellow Diners' Appearance May Influence How Much You Eat

Interesting Study...

Via Lifehacker.com

The study, from Cornell University and published in the journal Appetite, had 82 undergraduate college students attend four separate salad and spaghetti lunches. An actress—who is trim and in shape—was present for all four lunches and she did something different for each one. One lunch she ate healthily—more salad and less pasta—and another she ate less healthily, focusing on the pasta. For the other two lunches, the same actress wore a prosthesis that gave the appearance of having an extra 50 pounds of weight. While wearing the prosthesis, she again ate one lunch healthily and another less healthily.

The results were surprising for researchers Mitsuru Shimizu, Katie Johnson, and Brian Wansink. Here's what they found:

• Seeing an overweight eating companion increased unhealthy food intake. While in the actress was in the prosthesis, participants ate 31.6% more pasta regardless of how the actress served herself.
• Seeing an overweight companion serving herself healthily reduced healthy food intake. Participants actually ate 43.5% less salad.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666314 004450

That is just messed up. 

Interesting to see further studies as they try to understand the "why" of it.