Eat, Drink, and Be Wary

Women restrict their appetites around men, but eat freely with the girls.  

Women are more likely to eat less when their dining companions are male, but eat more when dining solely with other women, says research from McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. The research, led by Meredith Young, PhD candidate in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour confirms previous studies which found that people regulate their eating based on who they are dining with in specific situations.  

The project, Young tells demo dirt, was driven by three undergraduate students that she supervised at the university—Madison Mizzau, Nga Mai, and Abby Sirisegaram. The students were intrigued by prior studies on eating behavior and social judgment. 

“They were interested in previous research that demonstrated that we do evaluate people based on the food that they choose—women who eat smaller meals are rated as more attractive, posses more positive personality traits, and are friendlier,” Young explains. 

“Also, previous research has demonstrated that we do change the type and amount of food that we eat based on our eating companions,” she adds. “The students wanted to see if these behavioral changes might be observed in everyday life in humans, essentially observing humans 'in the wild.’” 

Researchers observed and recorded the results of student eating behavior in three large university cafeterias that offered a wide range of cuisine and dining companions. Research found that women dining with male companions choose foods that have significantly less calories than did women who dined with other women. 

In addition, the study found that women who dined with mixed-gender groups were also more likely to consumer lower calorie foods; also, fewer calories correlated with higher numbers of male companions. In other words, the more males sitting to eat with them, the fewer calories women consumed. 

Young says observing students in the cafeteria was the best way to ensure that the examined behavior was natural. “There is a long history in psychology of people changing their behavior once they know they are being watched,” she explains. “We wanted to avoid such confounds, so we unobtrusively observed undergraduate students in university cafeterias.” 

Because of this, the researchers never spoke to the participants, so factors like socioeconomic status, weight, race and other demographic markers were not recorded. Because most of the student population to be found in university cafeterias would be undergraduates, Young says that the assumed age range of the subjects was around 17 to 22. 

Would participants’ ages affect how strong the influence of the sex of dining companions would be on their eating behavior? Perhaps, Young says, due to their relationship status. 

“This hypothesis fits well because of their age; very few are in committed long term relationships, so a man in the mix could be a potential date (or mate)," she notes. "This hypothesis is certainly related to age, and I imagine that differing social relationships, age, and whether or not you are in a long term committed relationship could all influence eating behaviors among women.”

Eating disorders therapist Esther Kane, MSW, says that in her clinical experience, age has little to do with how much women eat when faced with dining with opposite sex companions. “I work with women of all ages, and the pernicious self-hatred we develop for our own bodies and desires doesn't often disappear as we age,” Kane says. “In fact, it often gets worse! Now we have other things to hate about our bodies: weight gain due to pregnancy, menopause, and age.”

She is also the author of It's Not About the Food: A Woman's Guide to Making Peace with Food and Our Bodies.

Kane contends that there may be differences between women’s eating behaviors based on their cultural backgrounds, noting that North Americans tend to be more body-obsessed than Australians or Africans, for example. 

“However, with the global market permeating every corner of the earth, I imagine that soon, this body-image-obsession will fall upon those lucky nations that don't know what it even is right now,” Kane adds. “This is very sad, indeed.” 

The study results, Kane says, reinforce notions of what define women as attractive. “Women have internalized the notion that in order to be attractive to the opposite sex, we should restrict our eating—or at least appear to when out in public,” she maintains. “Many women eat like birds on a date and then go home and gorge on chocolate cake and chips.” 

“There is a very dangerous combination of socio-cultural beliefs at work here,” she adds. 

These beliefs, Kane argues, include the notion that women must be thin to be considered attractive, and that it is “’unladylike’ to eat like a man.” 

“God forbid, women should have healthy, or even voracious appetites! What would happen if we just ate what we wanted until we were satisfied? I guess people believe that most men would run away in horror,” she says. 

Kane believes that food restriction indicates deeper social issues. “This begs the question, ‘What is so unsettling about a woman who goes for what she wants and takes her fill in life?’" she maintains.  “[It is] a metaphor, but one that I believe illustrates our underlying beliefs about women and food/weight.” 

Gender expectations, the therapist argues, can make women feel stifled. “Women are supposed to act differently when they're out with men, rather than when they're with their gal-pals,” Kane says. “It's like we're supposed to be on our 'best behavior' when in the company of men, and we're allowed to relax and be ourselves when we're with other women. Odd, isn't it?” 

The research also examined male eating behaviors. The study revealed no differences between how men ate with opposite-sex versus same-sex dining companions. The results regarding men’s eating habits was unexpected, Young says.

”The lack of an influence of social eating companions on the men's behaviors was the most surprising result to me,” she states.