Alex Tabarrok looks at a popular new diet book and asks an interesting question:
Do you eat the best thing first or save the best for last? Most people fall into one of these two categories and according to Brian Wansink’s Mindless Eating there is a simple economic explanation. The people who eat the best thing first tend to have grown up as younger children from large families. The people who save the best for last are more often first borns. Need I say more?
My wife (middle child of three) and I (only child) are apparently outliers, in that we both eat a little of this and a little of that until we’re done. Indeed, I don’t think anyone in my family or any of my friends eat their entrees and side dishes one-by-one.
Either I’m not very observant, have chosen a very anomalous group with which to share meals, or Wansink (or Tabarrok’s summary) is wrong.
