Diners Graze From Buffets with Preference Towards Items Offered First

All-you-can-eat buffets are perilous, perfect vectors for episodes of intense binge eating and generally poor food choices. As such, the all-you-can-eat concept has been the topic of numerous scientific and dietary studies, including a recent one in the journal PLOS One, which reports that the first items a person sees in a buffet line are taken the most and will bias what else is taken.

Cornell University researchers Brian Wansink and Andrew Hanks also found that the first-seen influence is so strong that people fill two-thirds of their buffet plate with the first group of items they encounter.

The researchers contend that if the most healthy items are presented fist in a buffet line, eaters -- whether consciously or not -- will make healthier food choices.

"Three words summarize these results: First foods most. What ends up on a buffet diner's plate is dramatically determined by the presentation order of food," the researchers wrote in their PLOS One report. "Rearranging food order from healthiest to least healthy can nudge unknowing or even resistant diners toward a healthier meal, helping make them slim by design. Health-conscious diners, can proactively start at the healthier end of the line, and this same basic principle of "first foods most" may be relevant in other contexts -- such as when serving or passing food at family dinners."

For their experiment, Wansink and Hanks arranged for two identical breakfast buffets to be set up on opposite ends of a hotel conference room. Each buffet contained the same items, but the food items were arranged in opposite order along the two buffets.

The food offered was: cheesy eggs, fried potatoes, bacon, cinnamon rolls, low-fat granola, low-fat yogurt, and fruit, presented in that exact order. At the other end of the conference room, the second buffet table had the same items arranged in reverse order.

As they entered the breakfast room, 124 conference attendees were randomly assigned to one of the two buffet tables so that 59 served themselves from the fruit-first line and 65 served themselves from the cheesy eggs-first line. For logistical purposes, attendees were told they could only make one trip to the buffet.

The selections of the eaters on either side of the breakfast room revealed that the foods presented first biased later selections. Eighty-six percent of diners took fruit when it was presented first; on the buffet where fruit was offered last, only 55 percent took fruit.

For cheesy eggs, 75 percent took them when they were the first item, while 29 percent of diners took them when offered last.

Regardless of which buffet line the diners were assigned to, 66 percent of their plate was filled with at least one of the first three foods offered on the buffet.

"There was also an interesting correlation between the first food offered and subsequent selections," the researchers said in a news release. "In the cheesy eggs first line, selecting cheesy eggs was strongly correlated with taking potatoes and bacon. Yet, when fruit was offered first there was no evidence that taking fruit was correlated with the selection of any other item. This highlights the cultural association of eggs with bacon and/or potatoes, where fruit is not generally associated with any specific food."