Give Me a Taste.

• Author: Schock, Christy Little
• Position: People's sharing behavior

IN THE MIDST of a global pandemic, a lot of people rightly will be reluctant to offer food from their plate to another person, or accept such an offer due to the fear of contamination, but for those with "attachment avoidance," a psychological term for reluctance to form close personal relationships, this was true long before anybody had heard the term COVID-19.

"When we share food, it shows trust--it shows we're willing to give up some of our resources, and it shows we want to get close with someone," says Omri Gillath, professor of psychology at the University of Kansas. "Think about the psychological aspect of comfort food. When people are feeling down, when they're upset, when they're stressed, food is a source of comfort. We think in part this is because of the connection between food and love. If you think about breastfeeding, babies are getting both the food and the nutrition they need, and warmth and love from their mom. This creates a strong connection between food and love."

Gillath is a coauthor of a paper--led by doctoral student Sabrina Gregersen--published in the peer-reviewed journal Appetit that examines the links between food-sharing and styles of attachment.

" 'Attachment' is a theory that explains how people bond to each other and how they regulate their emotions," Gillath explains. "People have an attachment style based on early interactions with their primary caregivers--parents usually.

"The three main styles are secure, anxious, and avoidant. If you had parents who were supportive and sensitive and found a good balance between helping you on the one hand and providing autonomy on the other, you're more likely to be secure. If you had parents who were insensitive and intrusive and weren't consistent about the help they provided, you're more likely to be anxious. If you had parents who were cold and rejecting, you are more likely to develop an avoidant attachment style. These differences that people develop pretty early predict a lot of relational behaviors and outcomes."

To see how these attachment styles affected people's food-sharing behaviors, the researchers conducted a handful of studies. In one, participants answered a battery of questions, many of which touched on how food preferences might be tied to romantic or dating behavior for people with various attachment styles. In a different study, participants were placed in a situation where they interacted with another person while one of them had a pack of fruit...