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Cloud-Based Commensality: Enjoy the Company of Co-diners Without Social Facilitation of Eating

Previous research has associated frequently enforced solo dining with negative consequences on psychological well-being, but the problem of having to eat alone may be solved by seeking mealtime companions in the digital space by watching an eating broadcast (i.e., Mukbang) or videoconferencing with...

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Autores principales: Wang, Chujun, Peng, Yubin, Qiu, Linbo, Wan, Xiaoang
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8636049/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34867658
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.758966
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author Wang, Chujun
Peng, Yubin
Qiu, Linbo
Wan, Xiaoang
author_facet Wang, Chujun
Peng, Yubin
Qiu, Linbo
Wan, Xiaoang
author_sort Wang, Chujun
collection PubMed
description Previous research has associated frequently enforced solo dining with negative consequences on psychological well-being, but the problem of having to eat alone may be solved by seeking mealtime companions in the digital space by watching an eating broadcast (i.e., Mukbang) or videoconferencing with others (i.e., cloud-based commensality). We conducted the present study to compare the consequences of Mukbang-based, cloud-based, and in-person commensality. Ninety-five healthy Chinese young adults were instructed to rate images of eating scenarios and foods. The results revealed that they expected loneliness to be reduced by Mukbang-based or in-person commensality, but they were also aware of the risks of enhancing food intake and/or being shifted toward less healthy food choices in these two scenarios. By contrast, the participants expected cloud-based commensality to provide the benefits of reducing loneliness without the health-compromising risks of increasing food intake or unhealthy eating. Collectively, these findings suggest the beliefs of the participants that cloud-based commensality can provide an “alone but together” context to balance the need for social interactions with the strategic avoidance of a social context facilitating unhealthy eating. The findings also provide some novel insights into how the application of technologies for eating behavior can be used to integrate social factors and food pleasure, and shed light on the promising future of cloud-based commensality as a combination of the strengths of solitary and commensal eating.
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spelling pubmed-86360492021-12-02 Cloud-Based Commensality: Enjoy the Company of Co-diners Without Social Facilitation of Eating Wang, Chujun Peng, Yubin Qiu, Linbo Wan, Xiaoang Front Psychol Psychology Previous research has associated frequently enforced solo dining with negative consequences on psychological well-being, but the problem of having to eat alone may be solved by seeking mealtime companions in the digital space by watching an eating broadcast (i.e., Mukbang) or videoconferencing with others (i.e., cloud-based commensality). We conducted the present study to compare the consequences of Mukbang-based, cloud-based, and in-person commensality. Ninety-five healthy Chinese young adults were instructed to rate images of eating scenarios and foods. The results revealed that they expected loneliness to be reduced by Mukbang-based or in-person commensality, but they were also aware of the risks of enhancing food intake and/or being shifted toward less healthy food choices in these two scenarios. By contrast, the participants expected cloud-based commensality to provide the benefits of reducing loneliness without the health-compromising risks of increasing food intake or unhealthy eating. Collectively, these findings suggest the beliefs of the participants that cloud-based commensality can provide an “alone but together” context to balance the need for social interactions with the strategic avoidance of a social context facilitating unhealthy eating. The findings also provide some novel insights into how the application of technologies for eating behavior can be used to integrate social factors and food pleasure, and shed light on the promising future of cloud-based commensality as a combination of the strengths of solitary and commensal eating. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-11-12 /pmc/articles/PMC8636049/ /pubmed/34867658 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.758966 Text en Copyright © 2021 Wang, Peng, Qiu and Wan. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Wang, Chujun
Peng, Yubin
Qiu, Linbo
Wan, Xiaoang
Cloud-Based Commensality: Enjoy the Company of Co-diners Without Social Facilitation of Eating
title Cloud-Based Commensality: Enjoy the Company of Co-diners Without Social Facilitation of Eating
title_full Cloud-Based Commensality: Enjoy the Company of Co-diners Without Social Facilitation of Eating
title_fullStr Cloud-Based Commensality: Enjoy the Company of Co-diners Without Social Facilitation of Eating
title_full_unstemmed Cloud-Based Commensality: Enjoy the Company of Co-diners Without Social Facilitation of Eating
title_short Cloud-Based Commensality: Enjoy the Company of Co-diners Without Social Facilitation of Eating
title_sort cloud-based commensality: enjoy the company of co-diners without social facilitation of eating
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8636049/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34867658
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.758966
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