You sit down to work, watch television or chat with friends, and there is a bowl of cookies, chips or nuts sitting on the table. You take one without thinking. A few minutes later, you reach for another. Then another. Suddenly, you look down and realize that most of the snacks are gone, even though you were never particularly hungry.
Psychology suggests this kind of mindless eating is not necessarily about weak willpower. The behavior can be influenced by environmental cues, attentional processes, habit formation, food visibility, proximity and automatic behavior. Research has repeatedly shown that what is placed in front of us can influence how much we eat, sometimes without conscious awareness.
