Eat, Drink, and be Monitored

Ponca City, We Love You writes "A new restaurant has opened at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, fitted with a control center and two dozen hidden cameras devoted to exploring the question of what makes people eat and drink the way they do. Over the next 10 years, a team of more than 20 scientists will use the research facility to watch how people walk through the restaurant, what food catches their eye, whether they always sit at the same table and how much food they throw away. Researchers will examine environmental influences on eating behavior by making small changes in the color of the lights, in accompanying sounds, in the scents or the furniture. "We want to find out what influences people: colors, taste, personnel," said one researcher. "This restaurant is a playground of possibilities. We can ask the staff to be less friendly and visible or the reverse." University staff who want to eat at the new restaurant will have to sign a consent form agreeing to be watched."

Comments

on privacy

[j_166]

I don't really see the privacy implications. Presumably, those going to this research facility to eat know that its a research facility. They have to sign a consent form. The title of the article should be "Eat, Drink, and Participate in Food Science Research", but I guess "Eat, Drink, and Be Monitored" just sounds more Orwellian.

Re:on privacy

[Anonymous Coward]

Presumably, those going to this research facility to eat know that its a research facility. Then it's a complete waste of effort. If those participating know that it's being monitored then they'll be playing a role, not acting naturally. The waiter is rude to you, what do you do? Well there's cameras everywhere, are you going to play "nobody messes with me, buster" or are you going to play "calm and unflustered"? The waitress is flirting with you, are you going to show play "real man" or "faithful husband"?

It could be a lot of fun, but it isn't science. Unless they are also monitoring another restaurant surreptitiously and the point is to see how differently people behave when they know they're being watched.

Re:on privacy

[yootje]

Disclaimer: I am Dutch ;) First off, I don't think it has anything to do with religion, people just like to watch people and gossip about it, especially in small communities. You almost don't see this behaviour in the cities and in small towns it's reducing, I think (I live in a city myself). You can also look at this in an other perspective: Maybe the open curtains say: we have nothing to hide, look at us? Or maybe people just like to watch birds. And I don't what you are trying to say about the "doe normaal"-saying: when someone wants to kick someone's ass: that's not conforming to "morally & socially" approved behaviour, is it wrong to say "please act normal" in that situation? Or when someone is shouting through the streets? Or when someone says he likes to have sex with dead chickens?

Re:on privacy

[porcupine8]

You don't sign an agreement every time you enter. You sign once, and then eat there whenever you want all school year (or however long, dunno how long the agreements last). A lot of research is done in front of cameras - if you leave the cameras there long enough, people forget they're there. I do educational research, and you always go into the classroom a few days early and start recording (or pretending to record). By the time you're ready to collect your data, the kids have forgotten the camera's there 90% of the time. Sure, it's not perfect, but people generally can't keep their guard up through an entire class/meal, let alone several in a row once the camera has faded into the back of their mind. And if the cameras aren't visible, even better.

The fact is, behavioral science in a tightly-controlled laboratory can only tell us so much about how people function out in the real world. Behavioral/cognitive scientists are starting to realize this, and looking for better ways to research real-world behavior in a way that's decently reliable and valid. There are tradeoffs.

Re:on privacy

[Darth Liberus]

I was in Amsterdam for five days in May and found your people to be really open, charming, and tolerant. I actually really liked the culture; everyone just goes about their lives doing whatever they damn well please and if someone's being an asshole people tell them to knock it off. American culture, on the other hand, can be VERY judgemental and VERY conformist, so I can see how such openness would cause some of us to become very, very paranoid :)

Re:on privacy

[BlendieOfIndie]

American culture, on the other hand, can be VERY judgemental and VERY conformist

Much like in the Netherlands, it also depends where you live in America. The South East (where I'm originally from) seems to adhere to these properties more so than other areas of the country (ex. California). In big cities you see less of the judgemental/conformist culture (just like in the Netherlands). Furthermore, I believe the judgmental/conformity traits hold the least in Western, individualistic cultures. I would expect these traits to be most prominent in Eastern, collectivist cultures like Japan. In Eastern cultures, you are defined as being part of "the group."

if you know

[Turn-X Alphonse]

But if you know you're being watched won't it effect how you act?

If that woman knows someone is watching her she might resist eating that extra few fries, but if she isn't she might just go get another bag cause she's had a shitty day.

Re:if you know

[Zironic]

It's rather irrelevant though.

What they want to know isn't "How do you eat"

But "How does your eating change if we do X and Y"

So how you're eating when you're being watched will become the baseline they're doing experiments on seeing how it changed by changing variables.

Re:Scum

[Yalius]

Subvert our reason? If our reason wasn't already subverted, this wouldn't work at all. Like it or not, your mind isn't as independent as you'd like to believe. It's already being influenced by thousands of external stimuli, and you have no idea how they're influencing you. Wouldn't you rather know what makes you choose the things you do, rather than leave it up to others to decide for you? At least, this is being researched publicly, so the results will be available. So the next time you walk into a restaurant and see that the carpeting as a burgundy instead of maroon, you'll know what it's supposed to make you decide. And face it, "they" can probably already play you like a drum whenever they feel like it. Your mind hasn't ever been your own. Ever since the first social environment arose, decisions and thinking have been made by groups, not individuals. Get used to it.

This is really NOT news

[zoomshorts]

This type of 'research' has been going on for a LONG time.
The only thing different here is a controlled setting
specifically designed for research, which by it's very nature,
will skew the findings. Restaruants have been doing this forever.
What sells, what ambience sells the most while encouraging
turn-over. Stuff any motel and restaruant manager knows to
look for anyway.

Yawn. Supersize that!

In response to the "wasteofmoney" tag

[QuantumFTL]

No this isn't research into space, into sexy supercomputing clusters, or other far-flung reaches of technology. This is research into basic elements of human behavior - indeed elements with a very strong environmental impact. Technology cannot solve all of our problems, it cannot solve the human condition. Part of fixing the ills in our society (and those we inflict on our supporting biosphere) is to learn how to subconsciously promote better behavior on the part of everyone. Small changes, done across the board, can make great gains - and much of these benefits "stack" with benefits from new technology.

So don't knock this research until you've looked at the numbers - according to this article in 1997, Americans threw away (for one reason or another) 27% of edible food, that's 96 *billion* pounds, which is ~400 pounds per person, per year! Sure, this occurs at many stages, but each stage can be improved.

I am sure that these tapes will be studied years later by linguists, behaviorists, game theorists, businessmen and efficiency specialists. Besides, with research, we never know what we're going to learn until we try.