Unit Bias

Unit Bias

Time for Reflection

If you are a fitness freak or simply a health conscious person, you would remember adhering to a specific healthy diet plan at times, where a unit/ portion was prescribed to you and then of course, there were cheat days to bite into food of your choice, maybe a pizza at times !

Did it ever happen that if a pizza slice was the recommended unit for you to consume, it didn't matter whether the pizza was medium sized or large sized. All that mattered to you was to consume just one slice (unit) of Pizza !

The above tendency is triggered by "Unit Bias". 

Lets discuss it more  

  

Definition of Unit Bias

Unit Bias is the tendency of the individual to want to finish/ complete a unit or portion of a given item, irrespective of the size of the unit/ portion. 

Andrew B. Geier and Paul Rozin developed the concept of Unit Bias in 2006 and the concept refers to the sense that a single entity (within reasonable ranges or sizes) is the appropriate amount to consume or consider. A study conducted by these three showed that participants eat more candy when served with a large spoon than when they were served with a small spoon even though they had no limits on how many spoonfuls they could have. The experiment showed that humans tend to see things as a single unit and do not take into consideration the size of the unit. Geier also suggested that people learn how big an appropriate food unit is from their culture. 

This bias has been widely researched particularly in the areas of "healthy eating" and "portion control". The individual affected with this bias is motivated by the desire to complete and this perception of completion is most satisfying to the individual. 

The bias starts impacting when the individual is just focused on finishing / completing the portion/ without any consideration to the size of the portion/ unit. Even when consuming a larger size of unit/ portion, there's no feeling of guilt whatsover even when the large size is equivalent to several units/ portions of the item.

This bias holds importance especially during these times when fitness, health and diet are on top priority for people and they adhere to strict disciplines and routines to achieve their health/ fitness goals. 

To help prevent unhealthy eating habits, it's essential to provide indicators to the individual to stop eating after a point. Segmentation and Portion Control are 2 ways to ensure limiting the quantity of item to be consumed by the individual.

 At times, even Less is More !