Psychological Reports: Employment Psychology & Marketing
2015, 116, 2, 381-387. © Psychological Reports 2015

INFLUENCE OF CHOPSTICK SIZE ON TASTE EVALUATIONS1
HUNG-MING LIN
Department of Business Administration & Institute of Management, Minghsin University of
Science and Technology, Hsinchu, Taiwan
CHIEN-HUANG LIN AND HUI-HSI HUNG
DepartmentofBusinessAdministration,NationalCentralUniversity, Chung Li, Taiwan

Summary.—This study explored the influence of the length of chopsticks ontaste evaluations. Participants (N = 78; M age = 21.1 yr., SD = 3.8) reported a greater
liking for their food and higher purchase intentions when using long rather thanshort chopsticks. Findings also indicated that the long (vs short) chopsticks caused
people to slow down when eating, resulting in greater eating duration and a higher
number of mouthfuls. The findings of this study provide insights on research into
the role of tableware in food intake.

The issue of dietary health has become increasingly of concern in recent
years. One reason for this trend is that people are often found either to beovereating or not eating suﬃcient amounts of food (Wansink, 2004). Many
people have diﬃculty in monitoring how much they eat during a meal (Wansink, 2004; Wansink & Cheney, 2005; Van Ittersum & Wansink, 2012). External cues such as tableware size are likely to be used in judging the amountof food consumed. Larger tableware increases consumption (Wansink &Cheney, 2005; Wansink, Van Ittersum, & Painter, 2006; Van Ittersum & Wansink, 2012) because people tend to employ consumption norms and will anchor judgment of the appropriate amount of food on the presented portion.
The four most common types of tableware are frequently used for dining, including spoons, forks, straws, and chopsticks. Wansink, et al. (2006)
examined whether spoon size exerts a visual bias (size-contrast eﬀect) leading to over-eating in a natural environment. Empirical evidence showedthat individuals ate 14.5% more ice cream when using 3-oz. spoons whencompared to those using 2-oz. spoons (Wansink, et al., 2006). The explanation for such a pattern is that people who are given large serving spoons
tend to underestimate how much they are consuming relative to thosegiven smaller serving spoons. With regard to fork size, Mishra, Mishra,and Masters (2012) investigated the role of bite size on the quantity of foodconsumed in a restaurant. They observed that diners consumed more froma smaller fork than from a larger fork and posited that when diners havea well-defined hunger goal to satisfy and have a willingness to reach that
Address correspondence to Hui-Hsi Hung, 7F, No. 78, Minyou 5 Street, Taoyuan City, Taiwan R.O.C. or e-mail (debby600717@hotmail.com).

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H-M. LIN, ET AL.

goal, a smaller fork gives the feeling that they are not making much progress in satiating their hunger, which results in more consumption compared to when they use a larger fork. In terms of straw size, Lin, Lo, andLiao (2013) examined the role of drinking straw size in volume judgment.
Two laboratory studies revealed that straw size can lead to diﬀerent perceptions of consumption time; individuals perceived their consumption tobe higher when using a thin straw rather than a thick straw. In contrast
to studies using these three types of tableware, there is little evidence on
chopsticks in the field of consumer behavior and psychology.
Previous research has discussed the food-serving performance of chopsticks associated with exterior parameters (i.e. shape, length, materials, etc.)
and method of use (Hsu & Wu, 1991; Wu, 1995; Chen, 1998; Chan, 1999;
Ho & Wu, 2006). Most of the research has focused on which method of use
or exterior parameters result in optimal gripping performance. However,there is little research into the length of chopsticks related to eating behavior
and consumer psychology. Therefore, the purpose of the current study is to
examine how the length of chopsticks can aﬀect taste evaluations.
People’s food intake is aﬀected by a variety of environmental factors,
such as plate shape, lighting, color, and convenience (Bell & Pliner, 2003;
Wansink, 2004, 2010; Stroebele & de Castro, 2006). For instance, lighting
and music may have a psychological influence on food intake since they
may directly or indirectly aﬀect eating time (Wansink, 2004; Garg, Wansink, & Inman, 2007; Wansink & Van Ittersum, 2012). Eating time plays acrucial role in taste evaluations. It is generally accepted that eating slowly
has certain benefits. On the one hand, slower eating speed might help tomaximize satiation and decrease the energy intake within meals (Spiegel,
Wadden, & Foster, 1991; Andrade, Greene, & Melanson, 2008; Shah, Copeland, Dart, Adams-Huet, James, & Rhea, 2014), and, in addition, eating
slowly may increase enjoyment of the taste of food (Brownell, 1989; Wadden & Bell, 1990; Andrade, Greene,& Melanson, 2008; Wansink & Van Ittersum, 2012). For example, Brownell (1989) found that eating slowly enables diners to savor and enjoy the texture as well as the taste of the food.
Wansink and Van Ittersum (2012) also reported that the softening of lighting and music extended a diner’s eating time and thus increase enjoyment of the taste of the meal. Furthermore, Andrade, et al. (2008) foundthat when participants consumed meals slowly, pleasantness ratings increased. These studies have provided supporting evidence that longer eating time can result in greater enjoyment of the taste of the food.
Hypothesis 1. The use of long chopsticks will lead to an extensionof the time spent eating, and this will result in greater enjoyment of the food.

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INFLUENCE OF CHOPSTICK SIZE

3

Chopsticks are an indispensable tool used widely in the everyday
lives of Asian people. The length of chopsticks is predicted to influenceeating duration. The distance from the chopsticks’ tip to the point at which
they are gripped by the users’ fingers can be regarded as the radius of thepinching movement, with the point at which they are gripped by fingers
as the center of the circle. Thus, the radius is long when gripping with longchopsticks, while the radius is shorter when using short chopsticks. Using
long chopsticks may lead to diners slowing down and taking longer to eat
meals, which has been shown to increase enjoyment.
Hypothesis 2. Participants will report higher appreciation for the
food’s taste when using longer chopsticks than when using
shorter chopsticks.
METHOD
Participants
Seventy-eight undergraduate students (34 men, 44 women; M age = 21.1 yr.,
SD = 3.8) were recruited from the Department of Business Administration
at Minghsin University of Science and Technology. The mean age of themen was 23.2 yr. (SD = 5.0), and for women 19.5 yr. (SD = 0.6). In the longchopsticks group (n = 38), there were 19 men and 19 women; in the shortchopsticks group (n = 40), there were 15 men and 25 women.
DesignParticipants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: either
the long chopsticks group (23 cm) or the short chopsticks group (19 cm).
Both types of chopsticks were made of stainless steel, and the chopsticktips were grooved to improve their grip. This experimental material was
selected because it is most common in Taiwan. Rice was selected as the material for the taste evaluation, because rice is the staple food in the Asianworld and people usually use chopsticks to serve rice in meals. Only 80 gof rice was served to participants for the taste test, since a full bowl of rice
may have misled participants about the real purpose of the taste evaluation. Moreover, no other food was given during the taste test to avoid any
problems relating to appetite state (hunger).
Procedure
The participants were tested individually in a laboratory. Upon arrival, the experimenter told them that they were participating in a rice taste
evaluation, and then they were instructed to sit in front of a table. The participants were asked to provide demographic information and then they
rated their hunger on a 7-point Likert scale with anchors 1: Not at all hungry and 7: Very hungry. Next, the participants were asked to gargle with a

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H-M. LIN, ET AL.

25 ml cup of water to eliminate any mouth odors. The experimenter provided them with a bowl of hot rice (80 g) and chopsticks. The participants
were asked to finish the rice, without any time constraints, and to rate its
taste qualities, including its viscosity, chewiness, and aroma, on 7-point
Likert scales. While the participants were eating the rice, another experimenter recorded the eating duration and counted the number of mouthfuls they consumed. After the participants finished the eating task, they
were required to rate their overall liking and purchasing intention of therice on a 7-point scale with anchors 1: Not at all and 7: Very much; thismatched the measure of liking used in previous studies (Nowlis, Mandel,& McCabe, 2004; Mandel & Nowlis, 2008). Next, they were asked to answer the question “How comfortable did you feel using the chopsticks?”
on a 7-point scale with anchors 1: Not at all comfortable and 7: Very comfortable, and the further question, “How eﬀortful was the use of the chopsticks?” with anchors 1: Not at all eﬀortful and 7: Very eﬀortful. At the endof the study, a ball-point pen was given to all participants as appreciation
for their time, and they were then thanked and debriefed.
RESULTSAn independent t test showed that if participants ate the rice with thelonger chopsticks, when compared to using the shorter chopsticks, theiroverall liking (r2 = .27) and purchase intention (r2 = .29) of the rice weregreater. Participants in the long chopsticks group spent more time (r2 = .49)
and took more mouthfuls (r2 = .35) to finish the rice than those in the shortchopsticks group (Table 1). A Levene test showed that the variances between the groups of the data set were homogenous.
To examine the influence of participants’ sex on the ratings of taste
liking, an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) revealed that the use of thelonger chopsticks still resulted in greater liking than the shorter chopTABLE 1
THE EFFECT OF CHOPSTICK LENGTH ON TASTE EVALUATIONS
RatingLong Chopsticks(n = 38)

Short Chopsticks(n = 40)

t

Eﬀect
Size

p
.02

M

SD

M

SD

Overall liking

4.63

0.97

4.05

1.09

2.49

.27

Purchase intention

4.58

1.18

3.98

0.92

2.53

.29

.01

Eating duration, sec.

38.26

11.56

27.03

8.03

5.01

.49

< .001.001

Mouthfuls

3.55

1.22

2.78

0.83

3.30

.35

Comfort

4.79

1.30

4.28

1.52

1.60

.18

.11

Eﬀort

2.11

1.29

2.28

1.26

−0.59

.07

.56

Note.—Eﬀect size is r2.

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INFLUENCE OF CHOPSTICK SIZE

5sticks (F1, 76 = 5.43, p = .02); therefore, sex did not have significant eﬀect on
the taste liking. The participants’ comfort ratings (r2 = .18) and eﬀort ratings (r2 = .07) for the long and the short chopsticks were not significantly
diﬀerent from each other (Table 1). That is, the diﬃculty for using the two
types of chopsticks was considered to be the same.
DISCUSSION
Previous studies have documented how diﬀerent tableware, such as
spoons, forks, and straws, exert a size eﬀect on food intake behavior. The
findings of the current study showed that chopstick length has a significant influence on taste liking and purchase intention. Obviously, due tothe physical characteristics of the tableware, the reasons behind the tableware size eﬀect vary. With regard to the chopstick length eﬀect, the duration of eating is an important explanatory factor; i.e., the long chopsticks
caused participants to spend more time eating and to take more mouthfuls for the same meal. Importantly, the ratings of comfort and eﬀort werepartial evidence that the diﬃculty of using both types of chopsticks was
equivalent.
In fact, eating more slowly can increase diners’ satisfaction in a restaurant (Andrade, et al., 2008; Wansink & Van Ittersum, 2012). Prior studies
have shown that some environmental cues in restaurants, such as music(Wansink & Van Ittersum, 2012), color scheme (Gorn, Chattopadhyay,
Sengupta, & Tripathi, 2004), and space (Baker, Parasuraman, Grewal, &Voss, 2002) aﬀect time perceptions. This study provides evidence that thelength of chopsticks can also be taken as a cue to slow the speed at which
diners eat, and thus enhance their liking of the meal. Accordingly, restaurants could consider oﬀering longer chopsticks to diners in serving themselves not only to increase their enjoyment of the food but also to enhancecustomer satisfaction.
Limitations and Future Research
Chopsticks are a major item of tableware for diners in Asia, and the participants in this study were all Taiwanese. Future research is needed to buildon the current study to examine the diﬀerences in results for Western diners.
In addition, only 80 g of rice were provided in the experiment, so it would be
worth investigating actual consumption in the real world. Previous evidence
has suggested that the food-serving performance of chopsticks is related toexterior parameters (i.e., shape, length, materials, etc.) and method of use(Hsu & Wu, 1991; Wu, 1995; Chen, 1998; Chan, 1999; Ho & Wu, 2006). For
example, a combination of bamboo chopsticks with grooved tips operated
with a pliers-grasp tends to be preferable for more favorable gripping performance (Ho & Wu, 2006). Hence, in future research the exterior parameters
and the various methods of using chopsticks should be considered. Diners

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H-M. LIN, ET AL.

often eat food from containers (e.g., a bowl, or a plate) with chopsticks during a meal. Combinations of sizes of containers and chopsticks can vary, suchas a large bowl with short chopsticks. It may be worth investigating how
container size interacts with chopstick length in terms of food intake.
REFERENCES

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VAN ITTERSUM, K., & WANSINK, B. (2012) Plate size and color suggestibility: the Delboeuf
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Accepted February 15, 2015.

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Name
Journal Reading Activity
Identifying Information

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•
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Title of the Article:
Last name of the author(s)?
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Find contact information for the author(s):The Date of Publication:

The Abstract• Highlight in green the statement of the problem.
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The Introduction Section - The Review of Current Literature•

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Labeling Figures in articles - Choose ONE figureo Highlight in green the figure titleo Highlight in pink the figure legend (caption)o Highlight in yellow the citation of the figure (if it has one)•

Read the opening paragraph - What is its purpose?

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What other topics are introduced/defined in this section?

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Read the final paragraph. What is its purpose?

••

Find and Underline the statement of the problem being studied.
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regression analysis)o Why is it necessary to perform statistical analysis?

The Discussion Section - The implications and possible significance of thedata is stated.

Highlight in green the original objective or goal - it is usually restated.
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implicates, shows,o Highlight in yellow any statements that show the broader (larger)
implications of the worko The introduction portion of a paper follows the "upside down triangle"
structure. The discussion follows the "right side up triangle structure".
Elaborating on the terms, general and specific, discuss how thisstatement pertains to the writing of the introduction and thediscussion.

The References Section•

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Do any of the authors of this paper cite their past work? If so what does this
show?

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Do any authors repeat? What does this tell you about where the idea ofthe project originates from?

o Give two reasons why a bibliography is so critical to you when
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Evolving a project from background literature

Describe two possible studies you could prepare for next year based on this study.

a. State the question being addressed.
b. What is your hypothesis?
c. Describe in detail the procedures you would follow.
Study l.

Study 2