J. Mata: Bringing change to the table: The role of social context in healthy and sustainable eating

Abstract
Unbalanced diets and related diseases are currently among the biggest challenges to public health –posing a greater risk for morbidity and mortality than the combined effects of unsafe sex, alcohol, drug, and tobacco use. Many behavioral change interventions have had limited success in long-term change of diets and eating behaviors – potentially, because they have conceptualized eating as an individual activity. Yet, eating is social: Over the course of evolution, humans have used food to establish social bonds. By the age of 20, a person has eaten about 20,000 meals, the majority in company. In this talk, I present a theoretical synthesis and empirical research on the role of social context in eating behavior in various social contexts using tools of the psychological and computational social sciences, such as experiments, intensive ecological assessments, and analyses of social media. I will focus especially on families and their mealtimes, but also include romantic couples, peers, and online communities. I will talk about how a social approach could further increase the synergies between promoting healthier eating and sustainability, for example, describing when adolescents reduce meat in family meals. I end by proposing that (health) psychology should aim to harness the power of a social approach to achieving long-term change of eating behaviors and diets, as well as health behaviors more broadly, and discuss the potential of social approaches to tackle issues of sustainability, such as climate change and health equity. 

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