aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Big gulp, bottomless thirst

So do you really think you need a quart to quench your thirst?

From the Cass R. Sunstein & Richard H. Thaler review of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think in The New Republic* last spring:

People sat down to a large bowl of Campbell’s tomato soup and were told to eat as much as they wanted. Unbeknown to them, the soup bowls were designed to refill themselves (with empty bottoms connected to machinery beneath the table). No matter how much soup the subjects ate, the bowl never emptied. Many people just kept eating until the experiment was (mercifully) ended.

The general rule seems to be, “Give them a lot, and they eat a lot.” Those who receive large bowls of ice cream eat much more than those who get small bowls. If you are given a half-pound bag of M&M’s, chances are that you will eat about half as much as you will if you are given a one-pound bag. The reason is simple: packages “suggest a consumption norm--what it is appropriate or normal to use or eat.” In fact, most people do not stop eating when they are no longer hungry. They look to whether their glasses or plates are empty.

* It’s behind a pay wall; I quote it liberally here.