Social Influences on Eating (PDF)

cognition, emotion, and behavior, the influences of personality (in particular restrained eating, or chronic dieting), emotion, cognition and socio-cultural factors on eating behavior, and various aspects of body image, media influences and self-esteem. Her research is widely cited, so much so that she was listed by ISIHighlyCited.com as one of the world's most cited researchers (comprising less than one half of one percent of all currently publishing researchers). She won the University of Toronto-Mississauga Research Excellence Award in 2009, and has been an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada since 2006.

Patricia Pliner received her Ph.D. at Columbia University and spent her entire professional career at the University of Toronto, beginning as an Assistant Professor in 1969 and retiring as a Professor in 2009; she is now Professor Emerita. She has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, the Journal of Research in Personality, Food Quality and Preference, and as an executive editor of Appetite. She has been a member of several grant selection committees for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, serving in one instance as chair. Her research has been funded by the Canada Council, the Addiction Research Foundation of Ontario, the Department of Health and Welfare Canada, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation and Communications, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Her research has focused on the effects of social factors on human eating behavior, including the study of both what people choose to eat and how much they eat.


Lenny R. Vartanian completed his undergraduate degree at Concordia University (Canada) in 1999, and his PhD at the University of Toronto in 2004. He then completed postdoctoral fellowships at Yale University and Cornell University, followed by a visiting position at Syracuse University. He moved to UNSW Sydney (Australia) in 2009 where he was promoted to Full Professor in 2018. His research focuses on the psychological aspects of eating and weight and has been supported by grants from the Australian Research Council. He has served on the editorial boards of Appetite, Health Psychology, and Body Image.