Plate Size and Color Suggestibility: The Delboeuf Illusion’s Bias on Serving and Eating Behavior

Ittersum, Koert van; Wansink, Brian

doi:10.1086/662615

Cited by 227 publications

(194 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Importantly, there were several methodological factors that were predicted to give rise to different results in these two studies: the food was presented differently (already served on the plates vs. self-service, respectively) and the contextual conditions were different (real restaurant vs. invitation to attend a social event). c These effects have been extensively documented in the branding/packaging industry (e.g., [73,74]). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the impact of the tableware and other contextual variables on multisensory flavour perception

Spence

Harrar

Piqueras‐Fiszman

2012

Flavour

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Currently little is known about how the non-edible items associated with eating and drinking (tableware items such as the plates, bowls, cutlery, glasses, bottles, condiment containers, etc.), or even environmental factors (such as the lighting and/or background music), affect people's perception of foodstuffs. Here, we review the latest evidence demonstrating the importance of these contextual variables on the consumer's behavioural and hedonic response to, and sensory perception of, a variety of food and drink items. These effects are explained by a combination of psychological factors (high level attributes, such as perceived quality, that may be mediating the effects under consideration), perceptual factors (such as the Ebbinghaus-Titchener size-contrast illusion and colour contrast in the case of the colour of the plateware affecting taste/flavour perception), and physiological-chemical factors (such as differences in the release of volatile organic compounds from differently-shaped wine glasses). Together, these factors help to explain the growing body of evidence demonstrating that both the tableware and the environment can have a profound effect on our perception of food and drink.Keywords: Cutlery, Tableware, Contextual factors, Flavour, Liking, Multisensory, Weight, Colour, Size, Material ReviewResearch on the topic of flavour perception has grown rapidly over the last decade or so (see Figure 1). In particular, the relative contributions of the various sensory cues (i.e., olfactory, gustatory, somatosensory, auditory, visual, and trigeminal) to multisensory flavour perception have been examined for a wide variety of different food and beverage items (see [1,2] for reviews). While a number of recent studies have also highlighted the importance of atmospheric/environmental cues in determining what, how much, and how quickly, we eat and drink, and even how much we report liking the experience ([3,4]; for reviews, see [5,6]), far less research has studied the role of the tableware on eating, drinking, and flavour perception. Below, we review the latest evidence highlighting the significant effect that the non-edible components of eating and drinking (e.g., the cutlery, plateware, glassware, condiment containers, menus, and atmosphere) can have on people's perception of, and response to, foods and beverages. CutleryCutlery, by which we mean forks, knives, and spoons, has been in widespread use for nearly 200 years now (e.g., [7,8]). Traditionally, it was made from a wide variety of different materials, such as wood, bone, ceramic, iron, brass pewter, etc. Nowadays, though, the range of materials used for cutlery is much narrower, mainly limited to stainless steel, silver, plastic, or wood (for chopsticks and the cutlery often found in ecofriendly coffee shops). This streamlining of materials has probably resulted from a combination of factors including: the ease and cost of manufacture/production, the ease of cleaning, environmental impact, and any taste transferred from the cutlery to the food.Lau...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the impact of the tableware and other contextual variables on multisensory flavour perception

Spence

Harrar

Piqueras‐Fiszman

2012

Flavour

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“…For participants to be unaware, the research would generally feature a nonfood cover story, and consumption was measured covertly. While it is difficult for a within-subjects design to disguise the fact that food is the focus of the study as noted by Van Kleef et al (2012), within-subject designs with children were, in some instances, included (e.g., Van Ittersum and Wansink 2013;Wansink et al 2014, study 2). These studies featured a 3.…”

Section: Data Extractionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We note that while some previous reviewers focused on amount consumed (Libotte et al 2014;Robinson et al 2014b), they did appear to include some studies measuring amount self-served (e.g., Van Ittersum and Wansink 2013).…”

Section: Data Extractionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Whether Smaller Plates Reduce Consumption Depends on Who's Serving and Who's Looking: A Meta-Analysis

2015

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The literature on whether varying plate size has an effect on consumption is mixed and contradictory. This meta-analysis of 56 studies from 20 papers shows that varying the size of the container holding food (e.g., plate or bowl) has a substantial effect on amount self-served and/or consumed (Cohen's d 5 .43). More generally, we found a doubling of plate size increased the amount self-served or amount consumed by 41%. Our analysis resolves the various contradictions of past reviews: we found that the plate-size effect had a substantial effect on amount self-served (d 5 .51) and on amount consumed when the portion was self-served (d 5 .70) or manipulated along with (confounded with) plate size (d 5 48). However, plate size had no effect on amount consumed when the portion size was held constant (d 5 .03). Overall, plate size had a stronger effect when participants were unaware that they were participating in a food study (d 5 .76).

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“…The present study is focused on the physical home food environment, which refers to what is present in the home (9) . Several factors in the physical home food environment have been associated with a surplus energy intake (10)(11)(12)(13) , particularly the presence of processed snack foods (e.g. cookies, chips), processed snack-food salience and the size of dinnerware.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The home food environment of overweight gatekeepers in the Netherlands

Poelman

Vet

Velema

et al. 2014

Public Health Nutr.

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Objective: The aim of the present study was to gain insight into (i) processed snackfood availability, (ii) processed snack-food salience and (iii) the size of dinnerware among households with overweight gatekeepers. Moreover, associations between gatekeepers' characteristics and in-home observations were determined. Design: A cross-sectional observation of home food environments was conducted as part of a baseline measurement of a larger study. Setting: Home food environments of overweight and obese gatekeepers in the Netherlands. Subjects: Household gatekeepers (n 278). Mean household size of the gatekeepers was 3·0 (SD 1·3) persons. Mean age of the gatekeepers was 45·7 (SD 9·2) years, 34·9 % were overweight and 65·1 % were obese. Of the gatekeepers, 20·9 % had a low level of education and 42·7 % had a high level of education. Results: In 70 % of the households, eight or more packages of processed snack foods were present. In 54 % of the households, processed snack foods were stored close to non-processed food items and in 78 % of households close to non-food items. In 33 % of the households, processed snack foods were visible in the kitchen and in 15 % of the households processed snack foods were visible in the living room. Of the dinnerware items, 14 % (plates), 57 % (glasses), 78 % (dessert bowls), 67 % (soup bowls) and 58 % (mugs) were larger than the reference norms of the Netherlands Nutrition Centre Foundation. Older gatekeepers used significantly smaller dinnerware than younger gatekeepers. Conclusions: Environmental factors endorsing overconsumption are commonly present in the home environments of overweight people and could lead to unplanned eating or passive overconsumption.

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Plate Size and Color Suggestibility: The Delboeuf Illusion’s Bias on Serving and Eating Behavior

Cited by 227 publications

References 38 publications

Assessing the impact of the tableware and other contextual variables on multisensory flavour perception

Assessing the impact of the tableware and other contextual variables on multisensory flavour perception

Whether Smaller Plates Reduce Consumption Depends on Who's Serving and Who's Looking: A Meta-Analysis

The home food environment of overweight gatekeepers in the Netherlands

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