When it comes to the ritual act of dating, participants often have very different expectations. Some hope to meet their soul mate. Others seek companionship. Some are looking for a good time and think that springing for a meal entitles them to one. And now a new study finds that some women say that, now and again, they just want to score some lobster tails. 

The finding is in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science. [Brian Collisson, Jennifer L. Howell and Trista Harig, Foodie calls: when women date men for a free meal (rather than a relationship)]

“You’re probably wondering how we came up with this idea.”

Brian Collisson, a social psychologist at Azusa Pacific University in California. Collisson says he’s always been intrigued, in a scientific sense, by romantic relationships.

So when one of his co-authors—Trista Harig, also at Azusa Pacific—told him about this interesting new phenomenon that Maxim magazine had nicknamed a “foodie call”:

“We were curious to explore how often women date men for food rather than a relationship.”

In this study, the researchers focused on heterosexual women—in part because, based on longstanding cultural expectations, men often pick up the tab, particularly on a first date.

In a pair of online surveys, the researchers asked more than 1,000 women: Have you ever agreed to date someone you were not interested in a relationship with because he might pay for your meal?

“We found that approximately 23 to 33 percent of women surveyed had engaged in a ‘foodie call.’” 

Of those who admitted to having swiped right for the free eats, the majority claimed to have done so only occasionally or rarely. But about a quarter admitted accepting the restaurant outing with greater frequency.

The respondents most likely to engage in this type of dating-for-dinner behavior were those who endorsed traditional gender-role beliefs and who scored high on a personality test designed to detect what’s called the Dark Triad.

“The dark triad refers to subclinical levels of psychopathy—which is a lack of remorse and empathy and perspective taking—Machiavellianism—which is where you purposely manipulate others for your own self-benefit—and narcissism, which is a grandiose and over-the-top self-love.” 

With that as a checklist, it might be possible to avoid the users who are in it for pasta—rather than possibilities. 

—Karen Hopkin 

[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]