UBC has contributed to a study that finds the amount of food eaten is similar to the portion size of the person they are dining with.

Researchers from UBC, Duke University and Arizona State University paired 210 college students with a researcher who pretended to be another student. The researchers were either small or made to look obese, and offered to share snacks with the student while watching a movie.

Researchers found that students usually ate a similar amount of food to that of the researcher. However, if the researcher was obese the student ate a little bit less, while the student followed the same eating pattern as a thin researcher.