Why Eating The Same Food Increases People’s Trust And Cooperation

NPR:

And, you know, all over the world people say they make friends by breaking bread together. There’s this assumption that when you sit down to eat with one another, you become closer. Well, let’s talk about that with NPR social science correspondent Shankar Vedantam, who is going to break bread with me. Hey, Shankar.

SHANKAR VEDANTAM, BYLINE: (Laughter) Hi, David. How are you?

GREENE: We’ve broken bread. We’re already friends.

VEDANTAM: Indeed.

GREENE: Well, so what’s this research you’re looking at?

VEDANTAM: Well, sitting down to eat together, David, obviously means you’re sharing another person’s company, but there’s also something else. When you eat together, one thing that happens is that you’re usually eating the same food as the other person. I was talking to Ayelet Fishbach at the University of Chicago. She told me that food has symbolic meaning all around the world.

AYELET FISHBACH: I think that food really connects people. Food is about bringing something into the body. And to eat the same food suggests that we are both willing to bring the same thing into our bodies. People just feel closer to people who are eating the same food as they do. And then trust, cooperation, these are just consequences of feeling close to someone.

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