37 research outputs found
Breaking Bread: the Functions of Social Eating
Communal eating, whether in feasts or everyday meals with family or friends, is a
human universal, yet it has attracted surprisingly little evolutionary attention. I use
data from a UK national stratified survey to test the hypothesis that eating with others
provides both social and individual benefits. I show that those who eat socially more
often feel happier and are more satisfied with life, are more trusting of others, are
more engaged with their local communities, and have more friends they can depend
on for support. Evening meals that result in respondents feeling closer to those with
whom they eat involve more people, more laughter and reminiscing, as well as
alcohol. A path analysis suggests that the causal direction runs from eating together to
bondedness rather than the other way around. I suggest that social eating may have
evolved as a mechanism for facilitating social bonding