Research paper
Geier AB, Rozin P, Doros G. Unit bias: A new heuristic that helps explain the effect of portion size on food intake. Psychological Science. 2006;17(6):521-525. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01738.x. PMID: 16771803.
Why we cite it
Proposed “unit bias”, the heuristic that one unit of an entity is perceived as the appropriate amount. The experiments show people took more when unit sizes were larger and ate more with a larger spoon; unit bias is the authors’ proposed explanation, which they ”argue” is general. (Corrected 2026-09-19 from ”demonstrated experimentally that this bias causes people to consume more”: the experiments show the size effects, and the bias is the proposed account of them.)
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01738.x · PubMed 16771803 · Publisher