eng Science and Education Publishing Journal of Food and Nutrition Research 2333-1240 2023-05-12 11 5 360 364 10.12691/jfnr-11-5-4 JFNR20231154 article Tomoko Osera 1 2 Yoshiki Katayama 2 Yuki Mitsui 2 Yukiko Segawa 2 Saki Maruyama 2 Nobutaka Kurihara kurihara@suma.kobe-wu.ac.jp 2 Department of Nutrition and Health Sciences, Faculty of Food and Nutritional Sciences, Toyo University, 1-1-1 Izumino, Itakura-machi, Ora-gun, Gunma, Japan The social facilitation of public dining is important for healthy development. Unfortunately, this practice was, for many, temporarily interrupted by COVID-19. In this crossover study, we posit that two conditions¡ªsilent eating versus conversing while eating with cafeteria situation affects consumption and taste. In all, 11 students at a university in Japan served 10 g of popcorn each during a 90-s interval under these two conditions. The main outcome measures were consumption, the scores for which were significantly higher when eating with conversation. The results indicated that ambience and friendship affected eating rates are important for food consumption. This paper¡¯s result suggested the importance of eating with others. We need to conduct additional experiments in the future. However, this paper is necessary for future developments. http://pubs.sciepub.com/jfnr/11/5/4/jfnr-11-5-4.pdf silent eating group eating university students popcorn taste environment