Fundamental Social Motives and Their Effect On Food Selection in Undergraduate Students

Abstract

Social motives affect multiple aspects of our daily lives with and without conscious awareness of these effects. Fundamental social motives play an important role in impacting how people think, make decisions and act. This research was designed to investigate how situational factors and fundamental social motives interact to affect food selection via an in-person experiment. Participants in this research were randomly assigned to complete the experiment in the presence of a same or opposite sex partner. Based on whether they were assigned to a “public” or “private” condition, they either disclosed to their partner what they would order at a restaurant, or they kept this information private by reporting the same information via a confidential form on their computer instead of to their partner. Following the food selection task, participants completed a series of questionnaires designed to measure social motives and tendencies to respond in particular ways during social interactions. Finally, they were asked to rate their partner based on factors such as friendliness and attractiveness. It was predicted that opposite-sex partners who are primarily or exclusively heterosexual and not involved in a committed romantic relationship will order fewer calorie meals in the presence of an opposite sex partner who they deem to be more attractive if they are publicly reporting their order. Meal choices of heterosexual same-sex partners are not expected to be influenced by perceptions of partners.