by Cassie Shortsleeve
Inhaling your food? Blame your fast-eating friend. New research published in the journal PLoS ONE shows that you match your dining partner’s eating pace—and even take bites at the same time as them.
Why? “We automatically mimic many aspects of the people with whom we interact, including their postures, gestures, mannerisms, and speech accents,” says Roel Hermans, lead researcher of the study.
But we also copycat to fit in, Hermans adds, because the way people eat can lead to negative judgments. Case in point: When men in a study were asked to rate women on how desirable they were as a friend or a potential romantic partner, the ones who ate small meals were rated higher than women who ate larger meals. Scarfing down food also leads to weight gain. Since it takes about 20 minutes for your body to register hunger, people tend to eat more when they eat faster. So if you’re with a friend who’s known to shove a burger down his throat, take a sip of water after every bite. It’ll prevent you from falling into his food groove, and the extra H2O will help you feel fuller, faster.