Peer Pressure Influences Food Choices in Public

Eating healthier when dining out isn't always so easy. Added peer pressure from friends and relatives to indulge in unhealthy choices may find you picking some of the more fattening food choices. That said, a recent study shows how much of an influence peer pressure can have when choosing certain dishes.

"My conclusion from the research is that people want to be different, but not that different," U of I food economist Brenna Ellison said, via a press release. "We want to fit in with the people we're dining with. It goes against the expectation that people will exhibit variety-seeking behavior; we don't want to be that different from others."

Ellison examined lunch receipts from full-service restaurants in Stillwater, Oklahoma for a three-month period. One section of the restaurant was the control group that showed how guests received menus via an item and price only. Another section also received menus that showed calorie counts for each entrée. A third section showed both the calorie count and a traffic light symbol that indicated caloric ranges.

With the data in research based on information via paper receipts, much of the findings hinged on three versions of the menus being used as specific tables in the restaurant that Ellison went to while undercover to observe.

"I would help bus tables sometimes so that I could watch and make sure that the tables were getting the right menus," Ellison said. "Or I would send people in as 'secret eaters.' They could eat whatever they wanted. I just wanted to make sure that they got the right menu for that section."

She discovered via a random utility framework, that food choices depended on characteristics of various choices-including item, price, or calories-and also on the choices of one's peers.

"The big takeaway from this research is that people were happier if they were making similar choices to those sitting around them," Ellison said. "If my peers are ordering higher-calorie items or spending more money, then I am also happier, or at least less unhappy, if I order higher-calorie foods and spend more money.

"The most interesting thing we found was that no matter how someone felt about the category originally, even if it was initially a source of unhappiness, such as the items in the salad category, this unhappiness was offset when others had ordered within the same category," Ellison said. "Given this finding, we thought it would almost be better to nudge people toward healthier friends than healthier foods."

What do you think?