Watkins, Patel, and Antoine’s work signals the value of healthy eating at work and the consequences of supporting it. They report that “Food consumption has been conceptualized as an integral aspect of employee well-being. Whereas most research in the organizational literature to date is motivated by individual health outcomes, we assert that eating at work also entails interpersonal implications.. . .In this manuscript, we draw from consumption stereotype theory and suggest that workplace healthy eating affects how employees are perceived and treated at work. Specifically, we posit that workplace healthy eating influences the extent to which a focal employee is attributed the trait of self-control, which subsequently impacts coworker citizenship behavior and social undermining enacted toward the focal employee. . . . when there is a salient healthy eating climate, workplace healthy eating is a weaker signal in the trait attribution process.”
Trevor Watkins, Amanda Patel, and Giselle Antoine. “You Are What You Eat: How and When Workplace Healthy Eating Cultivates Coworker Perceptions and Behaviors.” Journal of Applied Psychology, in press, https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000579
Sally Augustin, PhD, a cognitive scientist, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesignconnections.com), a monthly subscription newsletter and free daily blog, where recent and classic research in the social, design, and physical sciences that can inform designers’ work are presented in straightforward language. Readers learn about the latest research findings immediately, before they’re available elsewhere. Sally, who is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, is also the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture (Wiley, 2009) and, with Cindy Coleman, The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design (Wiley, 2012). She is a principal at Design With Science (www.designwithscience.com) and can be reached at sallyaugustin@designwithscience.com.