Half Full or Empty: Cues That Lead Wine Drinkers to Unintentionally Overpour

Substance Use & Misuse
February 2014, Vol. 49, No. 3 , Pages 295-302
doi:10.3109/10826084.2013.832327

Doug Walker [1], Laura Smarandescu [1] and Brian Wansink [2]

1 Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA
2 Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA

What might unknowingly bias the amount of wine a person serves themselves? Wine is often self-poured in various settings (e.g., at home, restaurants, receptions, parties). Building on research involving visual illusions and haptic cues, an exploratory field study finds that environmental factors (e.g., glass shape, pouring position, wine color) affect how much wine is poured in different scenarios. When individuals overpoured, they were generally accurate in post hoc perceptions of the relative extent to which the environmental cues affected their pouring. Increasing awareness of pouring biases is a step toward limiting alcohol intake for improved health outcomes and preventing alcohol-related problems.

Keywords
overpouring, overconsuming, environmental cues, wine

http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/10826084.2013.832327