Why Segmented Food Portions Appear Larger: Evidence for Numerosity and Surface Area but Not Reassembly Difficulty, with Implications for Smarter Downsizing – MSI

Working Paper

Why Segmented Food Portions Appear Larger: Evidence for Numerosity and Surface Area but Not Reassembly Difficulty, with Implications for Smarter Downsizing

Pierre Chandon, Andde Indaburu and Maria Langlois

Feb 20, 2026

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Conducts a series of online and in-person experiments to determine how segmenting food portions affects perceptions of total size, controlling for the number and arrangement of segments and the mental effort required to recombine them.

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research recap

When More is Less: How Perceived Portion Size Affects Food Consumption

Controlling the size of food portions can reduce overconsumption and waste, but size is in the eye of the beholder. Increasing the number of portions and the separation among them increases total perceived size. Such segmentation can reinforce social norms about appropriate portion size and increase consumer willingness to pay.

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