Fun Size

When I was observing graduate students do their work the other day, I noticed in my place of work that someone had brought in some Valentine's Day candy, chocolate that is now described as "fun size."

The term reminds of the great song by Howlin' Wolf where he sings, "I'm built for comfort, not for speed." 

Regardless, the candy makers are ingenious. You reduce the size of the candy bar and market it as "fun," and we all probably eat more than we should. Since they're tiny, we think, "Hey, I can have a couple more of those," and pretty soon you've eaten the equivalent of a couple of candy bars. 

Yes, yes, I know. You folks in the personal responsibility crowd will tell us that it's our personal choice, which it is. But I find it interesting that by reducing the size it might make us eat more.

Researchers have done all kinds of research about serving sizes and how people tend to eat all of the meal regardless of whether it's a gianormous or reasonable amount of food. In fact, there was an experiment where they had people eat soup, and the experimental group's bowls of soup kept refilling through a tube underneath the table. That group kept slurping and slurping because they wanted to get to the bottom of that bowl. 

Fun size, although different than that experiment, challenges the assumption that smaller serving sizes curb overeating.