Social Norms

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

January 14, 2026 Ti AI ṣe iroyin Àwòrán tí AI ṣe Ti ṣayẹwo fun ododo

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.