Why being with family and friends makes us eat more than when we’re alone or with strangers, and why we’re more greedy during the holidays

People tend to eat more when they are with others, and even more when they are with friends and family, and especially during the holidays

There could be an evolutionary reason for this, going back to the hunter-gatherer times

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Being with friends and family makes us eat more, especially during the holidays. Photo: Alamy

Published: 8:00am, 29 Nov 2019Updated: 8:00am, 29 Nov 2019

If you reach for extra helpings of turkey and stuffing at Thanksgiving or Christmas, don’t feel too self-conscious. Chances are, everyone else gathered at the table will pile more food onto their plates, too.

Blame the indulgence on one another, and our evolutionary wiring that dates back to our primitive days.

It’s a real thing, and researchers call it the “social facilitation of eating” – the tendency for people to eat more when they are with company than when they are alone. In fact, according to a recent British study, a meal size could be 29 to 48 per cent larger when someone eats with other people, particularly when they are with friends and family, rather than people they don’t know well.

Psychologist Helen Ruddock, an author of the study, says that she eats more when she is with friends and family – “especially at Christmas, because there’s always so much food available. I often eat beyond the point of fullness in social situations,” Ruddock says.

Studies show that people eat more when they’re with their family or friends. Photo: Alamy

Our tendency to eat more with companions goes back to the hunter-gatherer days, when people competed for resources, Ruddock says. This created a tension between wanting to get enough food for ourselves, and not wanting to look greedy. People would strike a balance by eating roughly the same amount as those around them.