We all know that men like to impress the fairer members of our species, and this permeates into almost everything we do: we want to drive the shiniest car on the block, crack the funniest jokes 24/7 and write for ZMEScience so we can impress the ladies at parties (works every time). In essence, no matter how unlikely it is to actually impress, if a man has a choice between doing something and doing that something over the top so he can show off to women, you can bet your right arm he’s gonna do the latter.

Don’t believe me? Well, a recently published study discovered that men will actually eat more food when they dine with a woman than they do in the company of other males, just to show off.

Men who were coupled up with a female tend to eat more to impress the fairer sex. Image via wikimedia

Netflix and eat?

The study observed over 150 adults having lunch at an all-you-can-eat Italian buffet over a two-week period. Researchers from Cornell University, who collaborated with Cornell’s Food and Brand Lab for the study, took note of the number of pizza slices and how many bowls of salad each subject consumed. Men who walked in the buffet with a female and ate there packed their plates with pizza slices and left the buffet line with bowls overflowing with salad. On average, they ate 93 percent more pizza and 86 percent more greens than the men who ate alone or with other men.

‘These findings suggest that men tend to overeat to show off – you can also see this tendency in eating competitions which almost always have mostly male participants,’ explains lead author Kevin Kniffin, PhD, of Cornell University in a recent press release.

The researchers waited for the diners to finish their meal and asked them to complete a short survey indicating their level of fullness after eating, their feelings of hurridness and comfort while eating. While they didn’t change the amount they ate while dining with either gender, the women reported feeling like they overate and rushed through the meal when dining with men — however, the team said that their observations disproved this.

So the next time you’re out eating with a guy friend, just try to relax and enjoy your meal; it’s just your brain trying to impress him — his brain is busy doing the same.

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