In recent years much of the research on eating behavior has focused on the effect that social factors have on the individual. The ESMA scenario was used to investigate how social factors influence eating habits. Esma is a woman of normal body weight who is in a restaurant at a dinner party with twelve people and many different meals are served throughout the evening, there are two things we are trying to predict from this scenario. First, how much will Esma eat compared to other people, and will it be different than when she eats alone? Second, if Esma has very low levels of empathy, she will eat differently than first predicted. This essay attempts to investigate and predict the effect that social factors have on eating habits by analyzing the evidence provided by numerous research studies. Numerous studies in recent years have shown that eating behavior can be influenced by many factors and it has long been believed that social factors have the greatest influence on an individual's drives. Social influence on meals consumed with other people is independent of situations, location, meal time, snacks, or alcohol (De Castro, 1990). The correlation between factors such as the variety of food available, the number of people and the ratio of people are just three of the many social factors that have been shown to have a strong and noticeable effect on food consumption. First we will begin by examining the effect that the varieties of food available will have on an individual's eating habits. It is commonly known that much of our eating habits are influenced by the look, smell and taste of food. Therefore, by increasing the variety available, it will encourage… middle of paper… udy. Journal of Physiological Anthropology, 33(1), 1-8. Clendenen, V. I., Herman, C. P., & Polivy, J. (1994). Social facilitation of eating among friends and strangers. Appetite, 23(1), 1-13.De Castro, J.M. (1990). Social facilitation of duration and size, but not rate of spontaneous meal intake by humans. Physiology and Behavior, 47(6), 1129-1135.De Castro, J.M. (1994). Family and friends produce greater social facilitation of food intake than other peers. Physiology and Behavior, 56(3), 445-455. Ristovski, A., & WERTHEIM, E. H. (2005). Investigation of the source of compensation, empathic traits, satisfaction with the outcome and forgiveness in the criminal context. Australian Psychologist, 40(1), 63-69. Robinson, E., Tobias, T., Shaw, L., Freeman, E., & Higgs, S. (2011). Social matching between food intake and need for social acceptance. Appetite, 56(3), 747-752.