[RYW] Bonus Lesson #14. Experiments in Rule 9 – Eating Until You Are Full

I was recently reading a book called Influencer by Kerry Patterson and was surprised that I learned a lot more than the gentle art of influence.

There are two studies related to our Rule #9 – Eating Until You Are Full discussed in the book that I wanted to share with you.

Both are examples that when it comes to eating until we are full, there is more going on than just the feelings in our stomachs.

1. the bottomless soup bowl experiment
Basically in this study, researchers observed two groups of people. The first group were asked to eat a bowl of soup and then stop when they were full. The second group were asked to perform the same task, but without their knowing it, the researchers were able to fill the bowl from the bottom as they ate.

The study found that people in the second group ate on average 3/4 cup more soup than the control group who had the visual cues that they were getting to the bottom of the bowl.

2. the marked potato chip experiment
In another experiment, researchers asked a group of people to snack on stacked potato chips in a can while they did other activities. A second group was asked to do the same thing but their potato chips were different in that every 10th chip was an odd colour. The other 9 chips would be normal and then there would be one coloured differently. The second group weren’t told that there was anything different about their chips.

Interestingly, the group that had the coloured chips consumed on average 37% fewer chips than the control group who had no indication of how many chips they had eaten. Showing that the group that had a visual cue as to how many chips they had eaten modified they behaviour and ate less.

and the takeaway?

We unconsciously look for many external signals to know when we are full and when we should stop eating.

So it’s important to be conscious of this and be more mindful when we’re making decisions about when to stop eating, really pay attention to our bodies, rather than blindly chowing down more than we need.

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