BBA Project

Will our food consumption amount be affected by the servers body shape?

BY

Kitty, Tsoi Wai Nga 08030014 Marketing Major

Mandy, Lam Sin Kwan 08035644 Marketing Major

An Honours Degree Project Submitted to the School of Business in Partial Fulfillment of the Graduation Requirement for the Degree of Bachelor of Business Administration (Honours)

Hong Kong Baptist University Hong Kong

April 2011

Table of Contents
Abstract------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 I. Introduction ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------5 II. Problem Development and Research Objectives-------------------------------------6 III. Literature Review and Hypotheses----------------------------------------------------8
The Effect of Body Shape of Server on Customers Amount of Food Consumption-8 The Moderating Role of Server s Gender ---------------------------------------------11 The Moderating Role of Customers Self Esteem----------------------------------- 12 Only female customers (students)------------------------------------------------------12

IV. Method--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------14
Participants--------------------------------------------------------------------------------14 Design and measure--------------------------------------------------------------------- 14 Results--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------16
Manipulation check----------------------------------------------------------------------16 Reliability test----------------------------------------------------------------------------16 Moderating effect of gender-----------------------------------------------------------17 Moderating effect of self esteem------------------------------------------------------18

Discussion--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19
Gender effect-------------------------------------------------------------------------------19 Effects of Self esteem--------------------------------------------------------------------23 Overall Discussion----------------------------------------------------------------------24

V. Conclusion----------------------------------------------------------------------------------25 VI. Limitation---------------------------------------------------------------------------------27 VII. Recommendations for future study-------------------------------------------------29

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Appendix---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 30
A: Manipulations------------------------------------------------------------------------------30 B: SPSS output--------------------------------------------------------------------------------32 C: Questionnaire sample---------------------------------------------------------------------36

Reference----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------42

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Abstract This research studies how the amount of food consumption can be affected by the body shape of others and the moderating effects of gender and self esteem. By manipulating the body shape of the server by given pictures made in Photoshop, we find out the body shape of the server can affect the amount of food consumption. The comparison consequences depend on factors such as gender and self esteem. These factors determine the mechanisms that may undertake during the comparison process. Participants who encounter a server of the same-gender undergo assimilation, whereas those who encounter a server of the different-gender undergo contrast effect. Moreover, those with low self esteem experience assimilation, whereas those with high self esteem experience contrast effect. The study has important implications for marketers, sociologists or related parties to better control customersweights through controlling people s food consumption amount in restaurant dining.

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I. Introduction According to the Department of Health, Hong Kong is within the top three Asian countries with the highest number of overweight people. It was found that about 38.9% of the population was overweight or obese (Lee, 2005). The problem remains serious as overweight problems are also found among youngsters. With the statistics gathered by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, 10% of youngsters were overweight in 1993; the number has risen by 15% in 2008. The reason is that children eat more but walk and exercise less nowadays (Mohit, 2008).

Overweight not only causes health problems but also increases the hospitalization costs in Hong Kong. Obesity causes chronic illnesses like heart disease, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure and stroke. In addition, as it raises the likelihood of the illnesses mentioned, more people need medical treatments which lead to the increase in the hospitalization costs in Hong Kong. It was estimated that the operating costs in Hong Kong' public hospitals had been risen from HK$ 2.29 billion in 1998 to HK$ 3.36 billion in 2002, which were about 8.29.8% of the annual total public expenditures in Hong Kong (Ko, 2008).

To prevent the health problems and ease the hospitalization costs in Hong Kong, it is important to find ways to control people s weight. Hong Kong people nowadays are mostly very busy. They usually dine outside, no matter during lunch hour or dinner time. Thanks to the unhealthy and oily cooking style of restaurants in Hong Kong, overweight problems become much more urgent. Therefore, from a socially responsible perspective, it should be beneficial if we can control factors that affect the amount of people s food consumption in restaurant dining.

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II. Problem Development and Research Objectives A recent journal (McFerran et al., 2010a) has proved that the body shapes of the servers could affect the amount of food consumed by different customers (dieters and non-dieters). The rationale behind is one s body shape can infer the food choices he or she make, thus can be served as a relevant cue for the consumption amount of customers. The research addresses people behaviors are affected by their personal identification with the server. This leads to assimilation towards similar servers in the way that dieters (non-dieters) would eat more (less) when the server is obese than when the server is slim (Mussweiler et al., 2004).

However, inspired from various journals comparing assimilation and contrast effect (e.g., Michael, 2004; Mussweiler et al., 2004; Mary & Robert, 2009), we propose that contrast effect, rather than assimilation, determines peoples reaction to body shapes of servers. To illustrate, when facing an overweight server, the customer will think himself or herself thin, which drives him or her to eat more. Moreover, since gender difference and self esteem are factors that could affect how one is compared with others, they are likely to influence the strength of the relationship between servers body shape and food consumption amount. Thus, we will examine these two factors in this study as well.

Having analyzing above aspects, two objectives are expected to be reached in this research. The first aim is to investigate if contrast effect will occur and affect customer s food consumption amount in restaurant dining when a server is presented. The second aim is to find out whether gender difference and self esteem will have an effect on the strength of the relationship respectively. We predict that server s body shape is positively related to customer s food consumption amount. The effect of
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server s body shape on food consumption amount will be stronger among same-gender comparison and among consumers with low self esteem than that with high self esteem. Knowing the research findings, marketers, sociologists or related parties can better control customersweights through controlling people s food consumption amount in restaurants. This contributes to the society by easing the obesity problems in Hong Kong or even other places in the world.

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III. Literature Review and Hypotheses

Fig.1 The model developed

The Effect of Body Shape of Server on Customers Amount of Food Consumption Although it seems that we control what we order and what we eat in restaurant, we are aware of only part of the decisions and are unaware of the effects of the environment on these decisions (Wansink, 2006).

In theory, the model of automatic processes suggests that in general, the presence of an environmental feature can activate an automatic process and then to an outcome (Chartrand, 2005). Refers to the restaurant dining context, existence of other people can lead to automatic self evaluation of customer, which in turn influences customer s choice. In other words, the food we choose (i.e. food consumption amount) can be influenced by other people around us. One of the relevant cues may be other peoples

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body shape. A research examines how costumers body shape affects another costumer (McFerran et al., 2010a). The results showed the quantity of food one chooses was affected by others, but whether the customers being affected to consume more or less depends on the body shape of the other consumer. Therefore, other s body shape can serve as an inference about what food choice ones will make (McFerran et al., 2010a).

A recent study of McFerran, Dahl, Fitzsimons and Morales (2010b) indicates the amount we eat and what we choose to eat can be affected by the body shape of those serving us. In the research, two experiments were done. Experiment 1 discovers a fat (vs. thin) server influenced dieters to increase the amount of food consumed. The opposite result was found for non-dieters. Experiment 2 indicates influential effect of server s body shape on their recommendations of food choice. Dieters were discovered to be more influenced by fat server while opposite result was found for non-dieters (McFerran et al., 2010b). The research proposes one s perceptions and choices are determined by identification, a psychological process which ones assimilates an aspect or attributes of a similar others (Laplanche & Pontalis, 1973), or the perceived similarity with the servers, resulting in assimilation (i.e. integrating newly obtained information into an existing schema of ideas) towards similar ones (Mussweiler et al., 2004). To illustrate, dieters who perceive they are fat, are more identified with obese servers. Therefore, they are more persuaded by obese servers which in turn will eat more and will be more likely to take in the servers recommendations.

While the research suggests assimilation results occur due to identification, we believe that sometimes contrast effect is also likely to be resulted. In this case,
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contrast effect means the enhanced or diminished judgments we would make, relative to the normal, when there is a stimulus that we could compare with. To make it simple, it means we tend to evaluate one, including ourselves against another and make judgments based on the comparison.

Social comparison theory (Festinger, 1954) provides a rationale for how others may affect what we think about ourselves. According to this theory, a relative nature in the evaluation of oneself meaning people tend to compare themselves to others to have an accurate picture of them. Virtually everyone engages in social comparison from time to time (Gibbons and Bunnk, 1999), comparison occurs without conscious control, when seeing models in advertising campaigns (Gilbert et al., 1995). Even when an irrelevant standard who has not been deliberately selected and explicitly provided or have briefly exposed can be enough for triggering comparison (Festinger 1954; Mussweiler et al., 2004). We infer that people with or without dieting will also

engage in social comparison unconsciously when seeing servers with different body shapes.

Contrast effect is more likely to be resulted when features of the standard are unreachable (Micheal, 2004); when the degree of overlap between the contextual cues and target is low (Mary & Robert, 2009); and when self evaluation is based upon an extreme standard (Mussweiler et al., 2004). By seeing an underweight server, it is possible for customers to perceive themselves fat and thus order less food because of body dissatisfaction. On the other hand, seeing an overweight server, more food will be ordered as customers think themselves thin which enhanced their body satisfaction. To illustrate, customers eat more when an overweight server is presented due to body satisfaction; while they eat less when an underweight server is shown due to body
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dissatisfaction. Therefore, we hypothesize that:

H1: Body shape of server is positively related to food consumption amount of customer.

The Moderating Role of Server s Gender Based on the social comparison theory (Festinger 1954; Goodman 2005; Bessenoff 2006), humans compare their opinions and abilities to others who are similar. Because the more similar others are to them, the more likely they use the information gained through social comparison in better understanding themselves as well as their future plans of action (Stephen, et al., 2007). So, it is consistent to the statement that comparisons with similar others may have more influence on affect and esteem than that with dissimilar others (Lin & Kulik, 2002). In our case, since behaviors of individuals of the same-gender are more similar than those of the different-gender, we expect that comparison with a same-gender server would have a greater impact on individualsesteem than a different-gender server (Nathalie et al., 2008). To illustrate, when facing an overweight server, female customers eat more with the presence of either a male or female server. However, the extent of the increased food consumption is larger in the presence of female server than the male server. Hence, with the moderating effect of gender, we hypothesize that:

H2: The effect of body shape of server on food consumption amount will be stronger among same-gender comparison.

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The Moderating Role of Customers Self Esteem In our research, it is predicted that people with different levels of self esteem respond differently in terms of their food consumption amount in the same situation (i.e. presence of a server of a particular body shape). One research shows high self esteem individuals prompt egocentric contrast effect (Dunning & Beauregard, 1998). Egocentric contrast effects occur when our judgments of others are skewed by our own characteristics, expectations and judge others in a self-serving ways. However, for low esteem individuals, they are less likely to judge others in a self-serving ways compared with high esteem individuals (Brown, 1986; Campbell, 1986). Therefore, we predict that, the higher the self esteem of one person, the more likely one will judge oneself in a self-serving way and the less likely one s food consumption amount will be affected by the server and their own body shapes. To illustrate, when facing an overweight server, customers eat more with the presence of either a male or female server. However, the extent of the increased food consumption is larger if the customer has low self-esteem than high self-esteem. Thus, after adding the second moderator of self esteem, our last hypothesis is:

H3: The effect of body shape of server on food consumption amount will be stronger among customers with low self esteem than among customers with high self esteem.

Only female customers (students) In general, people place a premium on women s physical attractiveness (Davis, 1990; Franzoi & Chang, 2000). Women were taught when they were a child that body is an indicator of beauty that it is also an important value-judging factor (James, 2000).
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This explains why college women compared themselves to professional models more frequently than college men when evaluating body aspects associated with weight concern and sexual attractiveness (Stephen L et al., 2007). And so there is always a stronger connection between social comparison and body image, especially for appearance-related attributes, among women than men (Heinberg & Thompson, 1992). Therefore, in order to generate a greater effect of the result, our respondents will be based on female students only.

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IV. Method Participants 180 female students participated in this research; they were recruited at Hong Kong Baptist University s campus and were invited to spend about three minutes to complete one questionnaire with sixteen questions (Appendix B). We randomly assigned the participants to four scenarios evenly such that each scenario had 30 observations.

Design and Procedures The experiment had a 2 2 between-subjects design, where the two manipulated factors were servers gender (male/female) and their body shape (underweight/overweight). This design resulted in four scenarios, which are presented in Fig.2. Across the four conditions, participants read a scenario in which they were asked to imagine that they dined in a restaurant for lunch one weekday afternoon. After finding a seat, they were told that a server, as shown in a picture at the end of the scenario, came and served them with a menu and two glasses of water. Standing nearby, the server was ready to serve them. The scenarios are the same across the four conditions except for the picture of the server shown, which the servers shown are different by their body shapes and genders. Participants in the gender-male condition were told that a male server came to serve them, while participants in the gender-female condition were told that a female server came to serve them. To manipulate servers body shape, Photoshop was used to generate servers with different body shapes (Fig. 3). The fat server was made fatter by making the whole body as well as face wider and rounder while maintaining the height so that they differ only in the body shape. On the other hand, the thin server was made thinner by making the whole body and face narrower in dimension.
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After reading the scenario, the participants were asked to indicate the gender of the given server to check the manipulated variable of servers gender. Besides, body shape was measured with two seven-point scales, with questions of What do you think about the body shape of the server? and What do you think about the weight of the server?

Next, participants were asked to indicate the amount of food they were more likely to consume after reading the scenario. To measure the amount of food consumption, pictures with main dish, drink and dessert in different serving sizes were shown to require participants to choose from three seven-point scales (Smallest amount to Largest amount) respectively. At the end of the questionnaire, self esteem was measured by a 10-item seven-point scale (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) (Rosenberg, 1965).

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Results Manipulation check: Table1: Data extracted from Test of Between-Subjects Effect table (Manipulation check) F ratio Body shape Server s gender Body shape Server s gender 143.091 0.707 0.077 Significance 0.000 0.331 0.748

To assess the body shape of the servers, two questions of What do you think about the body shape of the server? (from very thin to very fat) and What do you think about the weight of the server? (from extremely underweight to extremely overweight) were asked and measured in seven-point scales (from 1 to 7). A 2 (body shape) 2 (gender) ANOVA on the average score of these two items revealed a main effect of body shape, such that the server in the body shape-fat condition (M = 5.11) was perceived to be heavier than the server in the body shape-thin condition (M = 3.57, F =143.1, p < .05). Importantly, no other effects were significant. This indicates the effectiveness of our body shape manipulation.

Reliability test: Table2: Reliability Test result of all variables Server s body shape Cronbach s Alpha No of items 0.813 2 Food consumption 0.624 3 Self esteem 0.835 10

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The Cronbach s alpha of the body shape measurement was 0.813 and that of self esteem measurement was 0.835. In both case, the measurements showed high internal consistency reliability. When food consumption amount was measured using main dish, drink and dessert, the Cronbach s alpha was 0.584. After the measurement of food consumption amount in terms of dessert was ignored, the alpha value increased to 0.624. Although a value of 0.7 or higher represents a high internal consistency reliability (Nunnally, 1978), more than 0.6 but less than 0.7 was sometimes considered acceptable by some researches, especially for the exploratory studies (G. David, 1998). As a result, we used only the main dish and drink consumption amount to compute the average food consumption.

Moderating effect of gender: Table3: Data extracted from Test of Between-Subjects Effect table (Body shape x Server s gender) F ratio Body shape Server s gender Body shape server s gender 0.003 0.044 4.606 Significance 0.954 0.833 0.033

A 2 (servers body shape) 2 (gender) ANOVA on food consumption amount revealed that the interaction effect between servers body shape and gender is significant (F = 4.61, p < .05). The pattern showed that, when presented with same-gender server, participants ate less when the server was fat (M = 4.10) versus thin (M = 4.39). However, when presented with different-gender server, participants ate more when the server was fat (M =4.41) versus thin (M = 4.13). While participants presented with the different-gender server showed effects consistent with
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our first hypothesis (H1), participants presented with the same-gender server showed an opposite result.

Moderating effect of self esteem: Table4: Data extracted from Test of Between-Subjects Effect table (Body shape Self esteem) F ratio Body shape Self esteem Body shape x Self esteem 0.002 0.035 3.345 Significance 0.957 0.834 0.041

A 2 (servers body shape) 2 (self esteem) ANOVA on food consumption amount revealed that the interaction effect between servers body shape and participants self esteem is also significant (F = 4.26, p < .05). The pattern showed that, low self esteem participants ate less when the server was fat (M = 4.12) versus thin (M = 4.39). However, high self esteem participants ate more when the server was fat (M =4.41) versus thin (M = 4.14). While high self esteem participants showed effects consistent with our first hypothesis (H1), low self esteem participants showed an opposite result.

In both cases, although the moderating effects are significant, the patterns of the moderating effect of servers gender and participants self esteem are different from what we have proposed in hypothesis 2 (H2) and hypothesis 3 (H3) respectively. That is to say, assimilation occurs when participants are in the same-gender with the server or have a high self esteem. Whereas contrast effect occurs when participants are in the different-gender with the server or have a low self esteem.

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Discussion Effect of Gender In the experiment, we demonstrated the amount of food consumption can be affected by the body shape of the server. We expected contrast effect would occur when participants undergo social comparison with the server presented. However, the result showed that both contrast effect and assimilation may occur depending on the gender of the server. When the participant and the server had a different-gender, our results were consistent with the contrast effect explanation. When the participant and the server had the same-gender, assimilation rather than contrast effect occurred. This finding showed an important implication the social comparison process undergoes different mechanism depending on the situation presented. It is the comparison stage that determines the result of the self-evaluation (Mussweiler & Wurzburg, 2003).

This can be supported by several past researches which study when contrast effect and assimilation will occur. In fact, even factors that seem trivial affect whether one assimilates towards or contrasts away from the comparison standard. For example, it was shown that whether self-evaluation of attractiveness are assimilated towards or contrasted away from a comparison standard can depend on whether one believes that they have the same birthday (J. D. Brown et al., 1992).

One research shows that during social comparison process, when the self is judged as consistent with the comparison standard, the judgment of self tends to identify with the comparison standard. On the other hand, when the self is judged as inconsistent or opposite with the comparison standard, the judgment of self tends to move away from the comparison standard (Lockwood & Kunda, 1997; Mussweiler, 2001). Another research claims that how one reacts towards the comparison standard depends on the
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perceived similarity with the comparison standard assimilation occurs when the comparison standard is perceived as similar to the self, but contrast effect occurs when the comparison standard is perceived as dissimilar to the self (Mussweiler, Rter & Epstude, 2003).

Some researches present whether one perceives the comparison standard as similar or dissimilar to oneself depending on the most obvious information that is accessible or the knowledge that is activated at the time of the comparison. That means one will first briefly consider a small number of features such as category membership, to determine whether both are similar or dissimilar (Smith, Shoben & Rips, 1974). This knowledge or information leads one to focus on similarities or differences, which critically determines whether assimilation or contrast effect will occur. After accessing the perceived similarity with the standard, the hidden mechanisms that either leads to contrast effect or assimilation is similarity testing and dissimilarity testing. Similarity testing means selectively render accessible information indicating that one is similar to the standard. Dissimilarity testing means selectively render accessible information indicating that one is dissimilar to the standard. Therefore, the effects of the comparison mechanisms of similarity testing and dissimilarity testing are in opposite directions. If ones evaluation is based on standard-consistent knowledge, the evaluation will move close to the comparison standard. On the other hand, if ones evaluation is based on standard-inconsistent knowledge, the evaluation will move away from the comparison standard. As a result, when the informational focus is based on similarities, assimilation occurs; whereas contrast effect occurs when the informational focus is based on dissimilarities. This is regarded as the selective accessibility model (Mussweiler, Ruter & Epstude, 2003). It has also been shown that the behavioral consequences can be shaped by whether one focus on
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similarity or dissimilarity during the comparison process. One who focuses on similarities assimilates their behaviors toward the standards, whereas one who focuses on dissimilarity contrasts their behaviors away from the standards (Haddock, Macrae & Fleck, 2002).

The accessible knowledge or information can be the psychological closeness between the self and the standard. One may assimilate toward a comparison standard that is psychologically close to them and contrast away from a standard that is psychologically more distant. For example, a shared birthday with the comparison standard can lead to assimilation (Brown et al., 1992). Moreover, from the inclusion exclusion model (Schwarz & Bless, 1992), assimilation occurs when the standard was included the self in the representation; whereas contrast effect occurs if standard information was excluded from the self. A series of researches also state that whether one belongs to the same category or in-group as the comparison standard determines whether similarity testing or dissimilarity testing is more likely to occur. For example, one research (Mussweiler & Bodenhausen, 2002) involves male participants in a spontaneous comparison with a standard who was described as tidy and clean. The standard either belonged to the same or the different-gender category as the participants. It was found that similarity testing, which resulted in assimilation, was more likely to occur after comparing with standard that was in the same-gender category than those in the different-gender category. This suggests that self-evaluations are assimilated toward in-group standards and contrasted away from out-group standards. This is further supported by a study that shows male participants assimilate self-evaluation of how caring and understanding they are to a highly caring male and contrast them away from a highly caring female.

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In our experiment, the result can also be explained by the Selective accessibility model. When a female participant was presented with a server, the most accessible knowledge would be the gender of the server. If the server is a female, then the female participant will quickly regard her as being in the same-gender category. In this case, the participant will undergo similarity testing. She will render accessible information indicating that one is similar to the standard and assimilation will occur. To illustrate, when the server is fat, the participant will evaluate herself as fat, body dissatisfaction then resulted and thus she will eat less; if the server is thin, the participant will evaluate herself as thin and will be more comfortable to eat more. On the other hand, if the server is a male, then the female participant will quickly regard her as being in the different-gender category. In this case, the participant will engage in dissimilarity testing. She will render accessible information indicating that one is dissimilar to the standard and contrast effect will occur. When the server is fat, the participant will evaluate herself as thin, body satisfaction resulted and she will eat more; if the server is thin, the participant will evaluate herself as fat and eat less.

Another possible explanation for female participants eating less when seeing a fat female server is that the server could be a reminder to reduce food consumption amount to avoid becoming as fat as the server. Researches show standard associated with a behavior can shape consumer choice (Escalas & Bettman, 2005). People imitate the behaviors of aspiration standards (Englis & Solomon, 1995) but diverge behaviors linked with dissociative standards. Fat female server may be dissociative standards of female participants as they would not want to look like them. In one research, participants were asked to read an article that associated junk food consumption with people whom these participants do not want to be identified with. Then, they were asked to make food choices. It was shown that this led participants to
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make healthier choices (Berger & Rand, 2008). Refer to our case, as fat server is associated with eating a lot of food and regarded as someone the female participants do not want to identify with, the participants will then eat less in that situation.

Effect of Self Esteem Based on our literature reviews, when self esteem serves as a moderator, we predicted that people with high and low self esteem would both exhibit contrast effects, which is what many studies of psychophysics demonstrate. However, the outcomes we found from our data were even more interesting: although people with high and low self esteem were both sensitive to social comparisons, opposite direction of effects were shown, in which assimilation occurred in the case of low self esteem while contrast effect appeared when people with high self esteem. So, the key is to know the relationship between self esteem and social comparison processes; or in order words, how self esteem affects the occurrence of assimilation and contrast effect.

We examine a feasible explanation of why low esteem people tend to have assimilation to others. Brown, Collins and Schmidt (1988) propose that low self esteem people rely more on indirect forms of self enhancement and confirmed they are especially apt to benefit from their association with others. Contrary to high self esteem people, low esteem group tend to seek similarity with others, such connection with others imply a tendency to assimilation, which is typically resulted in this group.

On the other hand, people with high self esteem perceive themselves better than others to achieve self enhancement. As found in previously mentioned study by Jonathon et al (1992), high self esteem people are more motivated to the need of
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maintaining superiority over others than the desire to connect themselves with others. Such difference or dissimilarity from others implies a tendency to contrast with others the dissimilarity.

Applying the above concepts in our study, when facing an overweight server, female customers with low self esteem think they have similar overweight body shape (i.e. assimilation), body dissatisfaction resulted and therefore they will eat less. While facing the same overweight server, people with high self esteem contrary think themselves thin (i.e. contrast effect), body satisfaction resulted and thus they will eat more.

Overall Discussion To summarize, contrast effect occurs under boundary conditions, i.e. at the situations of different-gender and high self esteem. In other words, the occurrence of which type of social comparison process-contrast effect or assimilation depends on situations (conditions). At present stage, we infer one of the conditions is the existence of similarity perceived by customers between themselves and the server (standard). As such, when similarity occurs, assimilation will result; if dissimilarity occurs, contrast effect will present.

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V. Conclusion To solve the overweight problems in Hong Kong, we begin with restaurant dining to explore whether the body shape of server may affect the amount of food customers consume.

Our research is mainly based on a previous research (McFerran et al., 2010b) which indicates the amount we eat and what we choose to eat can be affected by the body shape of those serving us. It proposes that one s perceptions and choices are determined by assimilation. What is new in our study, we would like to discover whether contrast effect may present as other studies have shown that contrast effect may occur in some situations (Mary & Robert, 2009; Mussweiler et al., 2004). We also believed that factors such as gender and self-esteem may affect the strength of the contrast effect.

The result turned out that both assimilation and contrast effect may occur depending on the situations presented. With the presence of the gender factor, the result can be explained by the selective accessibility model (Mussweiler & Wurzburg, 2003). It has shown that factors resulted in different comparison process consequences can be related to the mechanisms of similarity and dissimilarity testing. When comparing with those who are regarded as similar, assimilation occurs. On the other hand, when comparing with those who are regarded as dissimilar, contrast effect occurs.

Regarding the effects of self esteem, we deduce the probable explanation may be that low esteem group tends to seek similarity with others and thus assimilation occurs. On the other side, high self esteem people are more motivated to maintain superiority over others, contrast effect therefore occurs.
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On the whole, we infer that similarity with comparison standard leads to assimilation, whereas dissimilarity with comparison standard leads to contrast effect. Hence, while prior studies have demonstrated that server s body shape affect customersfood consumption amount based on identification and assimilation mechanism, this research provides additional insight to existing studies that whether assimilation occurs or not depends on the conditions presented.

Moreover, the research shows the body type of others may be sufficient to affect our food consumption amount. There are important practical implications for marketers, sociologists or related parties in which these parties could better control customers weights through controlling people s food consumption amount in restaurant dining. To illustrate, restaurant marketers could decrease the amount of food consumption of customers by assigning a fat server to serve customers with the same-gender or assigning a thin server to serve customers with different-gender.

Last but not least, this study could also be used for making customers to aware of how unrealized others can largely impact on customersown food consumption amount than the people they realize. Being aware of how these situational influences might impact our food consumption amount is important for us to make healthier lifestyle decisions.

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VI. Limitation Before giving any further considerations to our findings, several limitations should be noticed. Firstly, we admit that one of the manipulated factors server s body shape was controlled poorly, although manipulation check was passed. Due to restrictions in resources, Photoshop was used to generate overweight and underweight body shapes of servers. However, looking at a 2D picture, every person has his or her own subjective definitions on fatness and thinness, it is better to use more scientific method such as adding element of Body Mass Index (BMI) in our scenario setting.

The second concern is our sample of female University students. With reference to the research done by Sears (1986), college students tend less to possess a firm sense of self, compared to older adults. Furthermore, evidence given by Social comparison theory (Rosenberg, 1979) that women are especially apt to be more influenced by social comparison information, only female students were invited as our sample targets. However, the use of only female participants limits the generalizability of our findings in gender moderating effect. Hence, these factors suggest that it is desirable to use older subjects of both genders in the replication of our present study.

The third limitation of the present research concerns the research design. Outcomes may have been more persuasive when the laboratory experiment was implemented using manual setting. Food consumption amount is set as our only dependent variable but because of its abstract nature, it is difficult to measure it in terms of main dish, drink and dessert s size by the 7 point-scales; this is the reason why there is 0.624 unsatisfactory internal consistency reliability in our dependent variable. If a taste testing can be implemented in which actual menu is given by a confederate server for participants to order, food consumption amount may be measured more reliably.
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Lastly, in order to implement a true experiment, apart from the manipulation of the independent variables and randomization, we may have to set a scenario without any servers as a control group. As both experiments and control groups are influenced by extraneous factors such as history and statistical regression, etc, the difference found between the groups should be caused only by the experimental treatment. Such difference may contribute to the correlation between the cause and effect variables and is what we mostly desire to discover.

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VII. Recommendations for future study According to the Selective Accessibility Model (SAM) of comparative thinking (Mussweiler 2003), the first step of any social comparison is: people make a quick initial assessment of the similarity between the self and the standard. Therefore, we suggest to add questions such as How similar you are to the server? in the beginning of the questionnaire to identify the similarity element. As such, further analysis can be carried out to see whether low self esteem people tend to seek similarity from others which in turn engaging in assimilation, as we mentioned in the discussion part.

Moreover, apart from gender and self esteem, we would like to investigate the influence of other potential moderators on the effect of server s body shape on customer s food consumption amount. For example, the desire for eating of customers, their mood during dining in restaurants as well as the frequency of dining at that particular restaurant, etc. Above all, to further achieve our objective of easing obesity problem, other controllable factors beside server s body shape that affect the amount of people s food consumption in restaurant dining should be examined. One possible independent variable may be the physical environment of the dining restaurant.

Last but not least, for further academic research, a 2 (self esteem) 2 (gender) 2 (server s body shape) ANOVA on people s food consumption amount can be generated and analyzed. Because significant interactions were found in both cases of two moderators gender and self esteem, we propose that self esteem may further affect the influence of gender effect on the relationship between server s body shape and customer s food consumption amount.
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Appendix A: Manipulations

Male server Thin server Thin + Male server Scenario A Fat + Male server Scenario B

Female server Thin + Female server Scenario C Fat + Female server Scenario D

Fat server

Fig.2 Combination of the manipulated factors in four scenarios

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Scenario A : Thin + Male server

Scenario C: Thin + Female server

Scenario B: Fat + Male server

Scenario D: Fat + Female server

Fig.3 The manipulated servers

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Appendix B: SPSS output

Reliability Test Servers body shape

Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha .813 N of Items 2

Food consumption
Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha .584 N of Items 3

Item-Total Statistics Scale Mean if Item Deleted 8.28 8.35 8.51 Scale Variance if Item Deleted 4.092 3.827 3.167 Corrected Item-Total Correlation .464 .423 .334 Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted .413 .443 .624

Main dish consumption Drink consumption Dessert consumption

Self esteem
Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha .835 N of Items 10

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Manipulation check
Tests of Between-Subjects Effects Dependent Variable: Average Body shape Type III Sum Source df Mean Square of Squares Corrected Model 107.352a 3 35.784 Intercept 3391.445 1 3391.445 Body 106.413 1 106.413 SerSex .707 1 .707 Body * SerSex .077 1 .077 Error 130.886 176 .744 Total 3631.250 180 Corrected Total 238.238 179 a. R Squared = .451 (Adjusted R Squared = .441)

F 48.118 4560.422 143.091 .950 .103

Sig. .000 .000 .000 .331 .748

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Interaction effect between body shape and gender

Descriptive Statistics Dependent Variable: AvgCon Body shape Server's gender Fat Female Male Total Thin Female Male Total Total Female Male Total Mean 4.0978 4.4091 4.2500 4.3889 4.1333 4.2611 4.2418 4.2697 4.2556 Std. Deviation .77186 1.01313 .90644 .95280 .78625 .87803 .87357 .91097 .88987 N 46 44 90 45 45 90 91 89 180

Tests of Between-Subjects Effects Dependent Variable: AvgCon Type III Sum Source df Mean Square of Squares Corrected Model 3.654a 3 1.218 Intercept 3261.600 1 3261.600 Body .003 1 .003 SerSex .035 1 .035 Body * SerSex 3.614 1 3.614 Error 138.091 176 .785 Total 3401.500 180 Corrected Total 141.744 179 a. R Squared = .026 (Adjusted R Squared = .009)

F 1.552 4156.992 .003 .044 4.606

Sig. .203 .000 .954 .833 .033

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Interaction effect between body shape and self-esteem

Descriptive Statistics Dependent Variable: AvgCon Body shape Percentile Group of AvgEst Fat Low Self-esteem High Self-esteem Total Thin Low Self-esteem High Self-esteem Total Total Low Self-esteem High Self-esteem Total Mean 4.1064 4.4070 4.2500 4.3864 4.1413 4.2611 4.2418 4.2697 4.2556 Std. Deviation .75135 1.03657 .90644 .92046 .82773 .87803 .84447 .93862 .88987 N 47 43 90 44 46 90 91 89 180

Tests of Between-Subjects Effects Dependent Variable: AvgCon Type III Sum Source df Mean Square of Squares Corrected Model 3.385a 3 1.128 Intercept 3262.927 1 3262.927 Body .002 1 .002 NAvgEst .035 1 .035 Body * NAvgEst 3.345 1 3.345 Error 138.359 176 .786 Total 3401.500 180 Corrected Total 141.744 179 a. R Squared = .024 (Adjusted R Squared = .007)

F 1.435 4150.607 .003 .044 4.256

Sig. .234 .000 .957 .834 .041

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Appendix C: Questionnaire sample - Scenario A (Thin male server)

Hong Kong Baptist University BBA Marketing Honors Project Questionnaire

We are BBA marketing final year students conducting a study on restaurant dining. We would like to cordially invite you to participate in the study. Please spend about three minutestime to complete this questionnaire. There is no right or wrong answers. All information obtained will be kept strictly confidential and will be used for academic purpose only. Thank you very much for your participation! Part A Imagine you are in the following situation One weekday afternoon, you and your friend decide to go out and have lunch. After walking for about 15 minutes, you two pick a restaurant and go in. You find a seat near the entrance and sit down. A server, as shown in the picture below, comes and serves you with a menu and two glasses of water. He stands nearby and is ready to serve you

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Part B Base on the situation described earlier, please answer following questions.

1. The server is a (please ) Female. Male.

2. The server is 4
Normal

1
Very ugly

7
Very good looking

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3. What do you think about the body shape of the server?

1
Very thin

4
Normal

7
Very fat

4. What do you think about the weight of the server?

1
Extremely underweight

4
Normal

7
Extremely overweight

5. What size of the uniform do you think the server wears? Size XS (very small) Size S (Small) Size M (Average) Size L (Large) Size XL (very large)

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After looking through the menu, you are going to take order

6. According to the following scale (1 = smallest amount; 7= largest amount), which amount of each will you order?

a) Main dishes

Smallest amount Normal

Largest amount

Largest

b) Drink
Smallest amount Normal

amount

c) Dessert
Smallest amount Normal Largest amount

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Part C The following table consists of 10 sentences describing people. Please circle the most suitable number to indicate the extent to which each sentence represents you.
Strongly Disagree Disagree Slightly Disagree Neutral Slightly Agree Agree Strongly Agree

I feel that Im a person of worth, at least on an equal plane with others.

I feel that I have a number of good qualities.

I am able to do things as well as most other people.

I take a positive attitude toward myself.

On the whole, I am satisfied with myself.

I am inclined to feel that I am a failure.

I feel I do not have much to be proud of.

I wish I could have more respect for myself.

I certainly feel useless at times.

10

At times, I think I am no good at all.

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Part D Can you guess the objective of this study? Yes, it is about ______________________________________ No

Part E: Personal Information Gender Male Female

Year of study

Foundation Year 3

Year 1 Year 4 or above

Year 2 Postgraduate

Faculty/School

Arts Communication Visual Arts

Business Social Science Other

Chinese Medicine Science

End. Thank you!

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