Every Bite You Take, We'll Be Watching You

by Jordan Yerman | December 15, 2007 at 12:05 pm

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At Dutch Restaurant of the Future, social studies are on the menu. And you're the appetizer. Actually, for now, the restaurant is only open to students and staff from Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Meanwhile, marketing analysts will surely be keeping tabs on this ongoing study.

It's all part of a life-size, 10-year social science experiment designed to answer one seemingly simple question: Why do we consume the way we do?

"We're trying to understand what the underlying factors of eating and drinking habits are," said Rene Koster, the project manager and an economist at Wageningen University, which hosts the restaurant.

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The Restaurant of the Future opened its doors Oct. 4 and hosts only university students and employees who have signed off on being monitored as they dine. From observation rooms nearby, researchers watch and analyze every move, studying how factors like size, smell, ambiance and packaging influence consumer choices.

In addition to the main dining hall, which is outfitted with attractive white tables and elegant floor-to-ceiling windows, the Restaurant of the Future hosts four smaller "mood labs," identical rooms where, with the flip of a switch, researchers can change the colors of lights, introduce smells or put up panels to give diners the sense they're eating by themselves rather than in a group.