The Science Behind Why We Eat so Much at the Movies

I’d heard great things about dine-in movie theaters, so I was thrilled when my friend booked us tickets to see Barbie at the local Alamo Drafthouse, a chain that’s conquered the dinner-and-a-show market. At 8:15, as I settled into my reclining seat, I ordered a light meal. But when it arrived after the previews, all I wanted was more. I hadn’t been that hungry, but as I munched, I felt that no amount of popcorn in the world could satisfy me. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Often, we eat the way the world around us tells us to—environmental cues help us decide when, how much, and what to chow on. And the dark, cool uniformity of movie theaters make them some of the most manufactured sensory environments we eat in.  Dine-in theaters are often marketed as a cross between a restaurant and a cinema, but in practice, they end up serving fairly different instincts. Foods we crave in a restaurant may have little appeal in a movie theater, while a tub of popcorn—a monotonous meal in any other setting— is endlessly satisfying. As it turns out, there are a lot of psychological effects at play when you enter a theater, and they reveal a lot about the interplay between food and our surroundings. Turning down the lights There are good reasons that upscale restaurants almost uniformly use lower lighting, and it makes sense that this darkness, replicated in movie theaters, encourages us to eat more. Most of it is in the mood...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized healthscienceclimate Source Type: news