Is Food More Delicious When Eaten Alone or When via the Internet?

Abstract

Previous studies reported that eating with another person renders food more delicious and increases its consumption. However, In the COVID-19 pandemic situation, eating with friends is restricted and eating and drinking via the Internet is encouraged. Few studies have focused on the deliciousness and emotions in such situations. This study conducted an experiment to examine differences in meal satisfaction and its deliciousness under three conditions, namely, solitary eating, video dining, and co-eating. The study recruited 30 college students (male : 9, female : 21). The participants ate the samples under one dietary condition per day and rated the response items. Repeated-measure analysis of variance was employed to compare the three conditions. As a result, significantly high scores for meal satisfaction and deliciousness in the following order of conditions : co-eating, video dining, and solitary eating. For all conditions, food satisfaction was found to be significantly highly influential in deliciousness. The study suggests that sharing a meal with someone, even virtually, renders food more delicious than eating alone. Online communication, such as conversations, may have exerted a social facilitation effect, which influenced the deliciousness of food. Video dining may be useful for social living during the COVID-19 pandemic and for addressing problems related to solitary eating.