Ryusaburo Nakata and Associate Professor Nobuyuki Kawai of the Graduate School of Informatics, Nagoya University have revealed that eating while looking at yourself in the mirror makes you feel delicious even with a single meal.
In recent years, the opportunity to eat as a place for gathering is disappearing, and the opportunity for "lonely eating" to eat alone is increasing.In particular, the tendency of elderly people living alone to eat alone is increasing year by year.It has been reported that the quality of life of the elderly and the enjoyment of eating are closely related, and it has been pointed out that depression and loss of appetite are related to loneliness, so there is a need for an easy solution to the problem of loneliness. rice field.
On the other hand, in many animals, "social facilitation" has been confirmed in which the presence of others increases the performance of the act.It has been known that in the case of humans, eating more with someone than eating alone increases the subjective taste.
The research group conducted experiments on elderly people aged 65 and over and university students.In front of the mirror in which you are reflected and in front of the monitor (which is about the same size as the mirror) that reflects the wall, you can eat as many popcorns on the plate as you like and score how you feel the deliciousness. I got it.
As a result, both the elderly and college students felt that eating in front of the mirror was more delicious than in front of the monitor, and their food intake increased.Furthermore, in another experiment with the elderly, a similar promotion effect was observed even when eating in front of a monitor showing a still image of oneself eating the same food.
From this, it is shown that the "social facilitation" effect does not require "synchronization of movement" that the person is doing the same movement as someone, and that he / she may be himself / herself instead of "other". rice field.
It is expected that it will lead to the improvement of the quality of meals as much as possible in the present age when lonely eating is regarded as a problem regardless of generation.
Paper information:[Physiology & Behavior] The “social” facilitation of eating without the presence of others: Self-reflection on eating makes food taste better and people eat more
