Social Influences on Eating, 1st ed. 2019

This book examines how the social environment affects food choices and intake, and documents the extent to which people are unaware of the significant impact of social factors on their eating.  The authors take a unique approach to studying eating behaviors in ordinary circumstances, presenting a theory of normal eating that highlights social influences independent of physiological and taste factors. 

Among the topics discussed:

• Modeling of food intake and food choice
  
• Consumption stereotypes and impression management
• Research design, methodology, and ethics of studying eating behaviors
• What happens when we overeat?
• Effects of social eating

Social Influences on Eating is a useful reference for psychologists and researchers studying food and nutritional psychology, challenging commonly held assumptions about the dynamics of food choice and intake in order to promote a better understanding of the power of social influence on all forms of behavior.

C. Peter Herman (BA Yale, 1968, PhD Columbia 1972) taught at Northwestern University from 1972 to 1976 and at the University of Toronto from 1977 until his retirement in 2012.  His research (supported from 1978 to 2019 by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) focuses on eating and dieting, with a particular interest in acute situational influences on eating, including social influences.  He has served as editor of The Journal of Personality and Appetite.  

Janet Polivy, PhD., FRSC (Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada), B.S. Tufts University (1971), Ph.D. Northwestern University (1974). Janet Polivy was an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Loyola University of Chicago from 1974-77, and at the University of Toronto from 1977-1980, where she served as an Associate Professor until 1985, and a Full Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the until her retirement in 2013, when she became a Professor Emerita.  She was elected to the Council of the College of Psychologists of Ontario in 1994, where she served two 3-year terms, and was Chair of the Registration Committee, Fitness to Practice Committee, Government Relations Committee, a member of the Executive Committee, and Vice-President of the College. She has served on various committees for the Association for Behavior and Cognitive Therapies, as well as other professional organizations, and on scientific panels for the US and Canadian governments. She served for 3 years as the treasurer of the Academy for Psychological Clinical Science, and served as Member-at-Large on the board of the Association for Psychological Science from 2010-2013, and on their nominating committee from 2013-2015. She served on the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Psychology Grants committee several times, chairing it twice. Her research has focused on the difficulties of self-regulation and self-change (the False Hope Syndrom

Broadens our understanding of why we eat what we eat, and of how much we eat

Discusses implications for people's weight and overall health

Written by renowned psychologists, notable experts in food behavior and the social psychology of eating