--- title: Altruism and Prosocial: Sharing Food Makes You A Better Person description: Sharing a meal with others—linked to more prosocial and altruistic behaviors—actually makes you a better person canonical: https://time.com/3572252/sharing-food-happiness/ author: Mandy Oaklander article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-08T16:00:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T11:18:17.322Z article:section: Health og:title: How Sharing Food Makes You a Better Person og:description: Sharing a meal with others—linked to more prosocial and altruistic behaviors—actually makes you a better person og:url: https://time.com/3572252/sharing-food-happiness/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbfd559313a23d8e7/698767ca524fc06e39dea9d1/sharing-food.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5348 og:image:height: 3008 og:image:alt: sharing food og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Sharing Food Makes You a Better Person twitter:description: Sharing a meal with others—linked to more prosocial and altruistic behaviors—actually makes you a better person twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbfd559313a23d8e7/698767ca524fc06e39dea9d1/sharing-food.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Sharing Food Makes You a Better Person > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=a5672f5a-877c-4b17-9774-690762fe7ce4&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1)  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Nov 8, 2014 4:00 PM UTC  Hands serving shellfish meal around wooden table Hands serving shellfish meal around wooden table Getty Images  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Nov 8, 2014 4:00 PM UTC Bad news for anyone planning a lonely night of delivery for one: sharing a meal with others actually makes you a better person, suggests a new [study](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666314004656) in the journal _Appetite_. In primitive times, food was delivered in bulk in the form of a whole animal—bison for four, anyone?—so it had to be shared by more than just a single family, the study notes. Since the very early days, food has been closely linked with cooperation. Learning how to distribute those portions fairly helped promote mortality and equality. But now that you can order a bison burger built for one, is sharing food obsolete? Researchers led by Charlotte De Backer of the University of Antwerp in Belgium surveyed 466 Belgian students, asking them how often they ate home-cooked family meals during childhood and their current prosocial behavior—or altruistic acts towards others. Those who had shared meals more frequently in childhood scored better for altruistic behaviors, particularly giving directions to strangers, offering their seats on public transportation, helping their friends move, and volunteering. “I think our Western individualised societies can benefit from sharing food more than ever,” De Backer told TIME in an email. “Sharing food primes people to think about fairness (do I get as much as everyone else at the table?), authority (who is being served first?), and greed (Sometimes I cannot take as much as I would personally want.)” There’s a difference between “sharing a meal” and sharing food, however. Simply grabbing dinner with friends and ordering your own entrees doesn’t have the same bonding effect. But when food is served “family style” or on a large platter meant to share, we seem to engage with our more prosocial selves. Next time you meet friends for dinner, consider a restaurant with more shareable cuisine. “Asian countries have a strong tradition of food sharing,” De Backer says. “Even in Western countries most Asian restaurants will still serve food in platters to be shared with everyone seated around their table.” And it’s never too early to teach kids that food shouldn’t be territorial. Any opportunity to instill it in children is important, De Backer says, and individualizing kid food is a lost opportunity. Take the birthday party. “If you bring out one cake that needs to be cut, children will automatically be primed about fair behavior,” she says. Letting them evaluate if the pieces are equal and fair helps them practice altruistic behavior—while unwrapping a cupcake, De Backer says, gets them nowhere. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3572252/sharing-food-happiness/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3572252/sharing-food-happiness/"},"headline":"How Sharing Food Makes You a Better Person","datePublished":"2014-11-08T16:00:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T11:18:17.322Z","description":"The link between shared meals and altruism","url":"https://time.com/3572252/sharing-food-happiness/","keywords":["Mental Health/Psychology","Food","Happiness","Diet & Nutrition","altruism"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbfd559313a23d8e7/698767ca524fc06e39dea9d1/sharing-food.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mandy Oaklander","jobTitle":"Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbfd559313a23d8e7/698767ca524fc06e39dea9d1/sharing-food.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"sharing food","caption":"sharing food","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/mental-healthpsychology/","name":"Mental Health/Psychology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3572252/sharing-food-happiness/","name":"How Sharing Food Makes You a Better Person"}}]}] ```