“She got more than me”. Social comparison and the social context of eating

• Social comparison plays an important role when individuals eat with others.
• Social comparison involves making upward or downward comparisons of oneself to others.
• Comparing oneself to others on eating and weight often leads to dissatisfaction.
• Comparisons can influence subsequent eating amounts, especially for restrained eaters.
• Social influences on eating may reflect the operation of social comparison processes.

Eating is a social activity for most people. Other people influence what and how much an individual chooses and eats. Such social influence on eating has long been recognized and studied, but we contend here that one important social influence factor, social comparison, has been largely overlooked by researchers. We review the literature on comparing oneself to others on eating and weight-related dimensions, which appears to have an effect not only on eating per se, but also on self-image, body dissatisfaction, and emotions. Social comparison processes may well underlie many of the social influence findings discussed in this special issue.