In an era wherein obesity is becoming an epidemic problem it's a good idea to try hard to maintain healthy eating habits. One way to keep down how much you eat is to dine with a light eater reports the University of New South Wales. The psychological effect known as social modeling is seen when how much you eat is influenced by how much food your dining companion eats.

It has been observed that how much your dining companion consumes can have a very big influence on how much you consume. Social modeling has been observed to lead people to eat less than they normally would if alone when their dining companion eats just a small amount of food.

Associate Professor Lenny Vartanian of the UNSW School of Psychology and lead author of this study has said in social situations the right amount of food to eat is often not clear. Signals which we experience internally such as hunger and feeling full may not be reliable guides to how much we should actually eat in these settings. In such situations people can look to the example of what others are eating to help them determine how much food they should eat.

Vartanian says the research has shown that social factors have a very powerful influence on food consumption. People generally suppress their intake of food and eat less than they generally would if they were alone when a dining companion eats very little. Yet, if the social model eats a lot of food people feel they have the freedom to eat what they normally eat or even more if they desire.

The results of this study have been published in the journal Social Influence. The findings from this study point to modeling as having a very powerful influence on food consumption. Vartanian points out that although the media reports generally focus on how portion size has an affect on how much we eat, this modeling effect deserves just as much attention due to it's significant impact on the ability of people to regulate their intake of food. So it seems like a good idea to choose who you dine with wisely if you want to be thin and healthy.