The social facilitation of eating. A review

•People tend to eat more when eating in groups.•People eat increasingly more as group size increases, up to a point.•Impression-management concerns suppress group intake among strangers.•Group size appears to dictate how much food (per capita) is served initially.

The social facilitation of eating (i.e., people eating more in groups than when alone) has been studied for about three decades now. In this paper, we review the empirical research (diary studies, observational studies, and experimental studies) of social facilitation, attending to factors that increase or decrease socially facilitated eating. We also review the various explanations (e.g., “time extension”) that have been offered for the effect and offer our own speculations as to the underlying mechanisms. Further, we discuss promising directions for future research on the social facilitation of eating.