Social Norms

Study finds diners overestimate how awkward it is to start eating before others are served

January 14, 2026 Reported by AI Image generated by AI Fact checked

Researchers report that people feel more uncomfortable starting to eat when their meal arrives first than they expect their dining companions would. The self–other gap persisted across multiple experiments and was only modestly reduced by perspective-taking prompts or by a companion explicitly encouraging them to begin.