Men Eat More If They’re Dining With Women, Study Says

He’s not that into you if he’s not chowing down.

Kniffin and his colleagues went into the study wondering if men would eat more in front of women or when with men only, but the results don’t support the latter hypothesis, they found. They recorded the number of pizza slices and how many bowls of salad each diner ate.

For the study, which was published online in the journal Evolutionary Psychological Science, researchers observed 105 adults that were eating lunch at an all-you-can eat Italian buffet located in the northeastern USA over the course of two weeks. That effort to impress apparently extends to their eating habits: A new Cornell study shows men eat significantly more food when in the company of women, a finding, researchers suggest, that has to do with a hardwired male urge to demonstrate prowess to the opposite sex.

The findings showed that men who ate with at least one woman during the study period ate 93 percent more pizza and 86 percent more salad than men who dined with other men. “(The study sees) the actual volume of food consumed – both healthy and unhealthy food – as a way to ‘show off'”. “Our article looks at the opposite question and finds evidence that men tend to “eat heavily’ in the company of women”.

They reported feeling like they overate while out with the guys, however, or complained they were more rushed through their meal than when they were on a girls’ night out – even though neither was necessarily true.

Regardless of which side of the table you’re on, the Cornell researchers said the takeaway was to “calm down” when eating with members of the opposite sex. Gender of each diner’s eating partner or partners was also noted.