Looking for the “right” amount to eat at the restaurant: Social influence effects when ordering

Two studies are presented showing that the social facilitation of eating has its roots in the phase of ordering food, both in an ecologically valid context (a real restaurant) and in a simulated context (a mock scenario). In both studies people ordered a number of dishes as a function of their co-eater group size. We contend that this is due to the activation of the “social meal” script assuming a normative nature. In line with our hypothesis, participants’ self-monitoring orientation moderated the effects of group size on the amount of food people ordered.