Between Collegetown and downtown, Ithaca can boast of many good restaurants. I always enjoy myself (and the food) so much that despite my best efforts, my stomach feels uncomfortably stuffed on the ride home. I usually ask myself why I ended up overeating yet again. I was never able to answer until last month, when I attended a lecture by Cornell consumer behavior professor Brian Wansink entitled “Mindless Eating: Secrets and Solutions.”
It turns out that restaurants have developed tricks to keep our forks moving from our plates to our mouths. They are so subtle that we don’t notice how they affect us, yet we continue to fall under their influence.
One of these tricks is temperature. A classy, sit-down restaurant will keep its thermostat high to encourage people to linger at their tables and order more. Customers will eat more slowly, but often will consume more because they’re comfortable and stay longer. Fast-food places, on the other hand, are often kept cooler. If the patrons do sit down, they will eat more quickly and not notice as readily when they feel full.
Restaurants can also get you to eat more through controlling their background music. If the music is too fast, it will cause people to eat quickly (and often too much). But if the music is slow, customers stay longer and order extras. Sometimes, restaurants even match the type of music to the more expensive items on the menu. Wansink’s Food and Brand Lab did a small study at a reception where they offered patrons three types of white wine by the glass: French, German, and Californian. Throughout the evening the music alternated among French, German, and Californian styles. When the French music was playing, people ordered the French wine more than they did when the German music was playing. In the same way, the Californian wine was chosen most often when the Beach Boys were on the soundtrack.
Using big plates also encourages overeating; people will unconsciously eat more when the plate is larger. Americans tend to eat until their plate is empty, no matter the size. To prove our drive to see a clean plate, Wansink invented a “bottomless” soup bowl; as participants ate, their bowls would surreptitiously refill from a tank under the table. Some people ate whole quarts of soup without noticing the trick.
Being more conscious of these things since the lecture, I realize that restaurants often have large plates and huge portions. It’s always hard to finish the burritos at Viva Taqueria. I can remember feeling comfortably warm and content after the main course at Zaza’s, a local Italian restaurant, yet still ordering dessert and coffee. We do in fact eat mindlessly, even though we don’t have to. Now, when I dine out, I try to eat until I feel full—and ignore the subliminal messages, however pleasant they may be.