Men tend to overeat when they are trying to show off for the opposite sex, according to a recent study.
Researchers from Cornell University found that men will eat significantly more food in the company of women than they will with other men, CTV News reported.
"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," Kevin Kniffin, lead author of the study, said in a statement.
For the study, researchers collected and analyzed data from more than 100 adults lunching at an all-you-can-eat Italian buffet over the course of two weeks, UPI reported. They recorded the number of pizza slices and how many bowls of salad each diner ate. Gender of each diner's eating partner or partners was also noted. Before leaving the restaurant, the diners were intercepted by a researcher to ask them to complete a short survey indicating their level of fullness after eating, and their feelings of hurriedness and comfort while eating.
They found that men who dined with at least one woman ate 93 percent more pizza and 86 percent more salad than men who dined with only other men. The amount that women ate didn't differ when eating with other women or with men. When they ate with men, many women indicated feeling that they overate and were rushed through their meal.
The findings are detailed in the journal Evolutionary Psychological Science.
