Health & poetry

In 2005, Brian Wansink's research group published a remarkable study that demonstrates the powerful unconscious influence of the food environment on our consumption (1).

Volunteers were invited to a test kitchen to eat bowls of tomato soup for lunch. Each person was given a bowl containing 18 ounces of soup-- but there was a catch. Half the volunteers were given custom-made soup bowls that partially refilled as they ate, such that the soup level dropped more slowly.