Food sharing and feeding another person suggest intimacy; two studies of American college students

Organic Food Appeals to Intuition and Triggers Stereotypes

“…Research on the similarity bias (a review: Montoya & Horton, 2013), myside bias (Stanovich, West, & Toplak, 2013) show that we are prone to evaluate positively individuals who are like ourselves. As our stimulus couple only ate together, the results also extend the findings about food sharing (Miller et al, 1998) by showing that sharing the food is not necessary for the impression about a positive social relationship, eating praiseworthy food together may suffice. The findings are also closely related to the other stereotypical judgments based on what people eat, most often associated with masculine vs. feminine diet or vegetarian vs. meat-based diet (Vartanian, 2015;Vartanian et al, 2007).…”

Dining with liberals and conservatives: The social underpinnings of food neophobia

“…Although we could not find studies investigating this possibility, sharing food has always been considered a means of socializing and consolidating friendships [ 87 ] and thus can be an effective special case of intergroup contact. Indeed, the idea of improving intergroup relations through “multi-ethnic dinners” seems popular in small communities across the world, and some research suggests that sharing food is interpreted as a sign of social intimacy [ 88 ], while eating the same food leads to increased trust and cooperation among strangers [ 89 ]. Our results indicate that improving intergroup attitudes, in addition to being inherently beneficial, can also help enlarge individuals’ array of accepted food, but do not exclude that the reverse may be true—that is, it is possible that increasing individuals’ acceptance of novel food could help improve their intergroup attitudes.…”

Uncovering the impact of food sharing platform business models: a theory of change approach

“…Furthermore, the emphasis on societal outcomes, in terms of social inclusion and sense of community, supports the arguments in favor of the sharing economy, suggesting that food sharing platforms can preserve its original mission of fostering social bonding (Habibi et al , 2016). Notably, it is also suggested that food sharing platforms can trigger, by leveraging digital technology, the feelings of caring and social connection that have been observed as traditionally associated with food sharing (Davies and Legg, 2018; Hamburg et al , 2014; Miller et al 1998). From the findings therefore the contribution of food sharing platforms’ business models to the food sector’s sustainability emerges as relevant and multifaceted.…”