Research paper
Cruwys T, Bevelander KE, Hermans RCJ. Social modeling of eating: A review of when and why social influence affects food intake and choice. Appetite. 2015;86:3-18. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2014.08.035
Why we cite it
A review of experimental evidence on social modeling of eating covering 69 studies spanning 1974-2014 with over 5,800 participants (corrected 2026-09-02, card 6NM98H: previously “The most comprehensive” and “Uniquely valuable”; the 69 studies and 5,800 participants are the checkable version of both). Valuable because it synthesizes when and why modeling occurs, not just whether it occurs. It finds modeling ”at least partially mediated through behavioral mimicry, which occurs without conscious awareness”, and discusses evidence that it is ”motivated by goals of both affiliation and uncertainty-reduction”. Both routes are the review’s, not one against the other. The project uses it for companions about social eating contexts (work lunches, potlucks, family dinners). Moderators with substantial evidence: desire to affiliate, perceived similarity, and food type or meal. The evidence on sex is inconclusive. It is limited for hunger, personality, age, weight and whether others are present. (Corrected 2026-09-19. This read ”a motivated strategy … not mindless mimicry”, which the abstract contradicts, and listed relationship and context among moderators beside a sex moderator the abstract grades inconclusive.)
DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2014.08.035 · PubMed 25174571 · Publisher