Consumers Opt For Larger Food Portions To Increase Social Status

[Liberal_in_LA]

Consumers Opt For Larger Food Portions To Increase Social Status

People who want to improve their social standing but don’t have the means to splash out on the Mcmansion opt instead for more affordable, edible indicators of the old adage bigger is better. The extra large soda, the 16oz. ribeye steak or the triple hamburger with the bottomless fries are the poor man’s bling, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Consumer Research.

The notion that people associate larger products with greater status is nothing new – consider ever-growing flat-screen TVs or the size of the vehicles of the rich and famous.(Beyonce’s recently purchased, souped up $1million Mercedes van with full bathroom and shower proves an excellent example.) But that consumers actually carry this cultural norm across to how we eat and what we eat is an extraordinary new finding that can be vitally useful in addressing the growing obesity crisis which has mostly affected vulnerable populations, particularly lower socioeconomic status communities.

By mean of a series of six experiments, a team of researchers from Northwestern University and École des Hautes Études Commerciales de Paris (HEC Paris) found that consumers who feel powerless in society, opt for larger food portions when out in public environments or with friends in an effort to improve their social status. Interestingly, they also found that when the conventional size-to-status relationship was negated in an experiment where “powerless” participants were told that smaller hors d’oeuvres are served at prestigious events such as presidential receptions whereas larger canapés were served at more common occasions, the reserve scenario took place, and subjects opted for the more diminutive offerings, again in a bid to associate themselves with the more elitist set.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/nadiaarumugam/2011/11/18/consumers-opt-for-larger-food-portions-to-increase-social-status/

[leveymg]

1. The rich actually eat tiny little morsels - many plates of tiny, exhorbitantly priced food art.

It's called a la carte, the Spanish word is Tapas, but it's a way of making the final tab for one person come out in the high hundreds - that's without the wine and liquors.

[Angry Dragon]

2. Does that mean they all go to the Olive Garden for

their endless bread sticks and their bottomless salad bowl??


I just hope there are no breast feeding pit bulls there

[Earth_First]

3. Dining out? ...what's that?!

:shrug:

[csziggy]

4. Serving sizes are ridiculous at most restaurants

I have no qualms about asking for take out boxes and most times we eat out, I bring home enough to make a second meal. I don't order appetizers or salad, because the basic meal is more than I can eat at one sitting.

I don't get the concept that ordering a big meal is a status thing. :WTH:

[msongs]

5. it's common on many things - go in hock on a car so you look good, even though all your neighbors

know the truth, as they are doing the same thing

[Liberal_in_LA]

8. true.

[redqueen]

6. As much as we try to be rational,

we are all influenced to some degree by our subconscious (usually to a large degree)... the subconscious desire to be perceived as being high-status individuals is what lies behind many of our more irrational behaviors.

[gulliver]

7. People who get the same kick from a Wendy's triple...

...as another person gets from a truffle soufflé are the richer people. The same mental circuitry gets exercised. Sure, you can brag about how much you enjoy the taste of truffles later, but that just makes you a bore. The rich are not that much happier. Past a certain point, the money doesn't matter. Positive Psychology is the way to go, imo.