‘DINING TOGETHER STRENGHTENS RELATIONSHIPS’
The psychologists analysed the origins of social dining such as business meals, cocktail parties, receptions, and wedding dinners. The factors reflecting on today’s culture of hunting and dining together since the dawn of mankind have been revealed by the psychologists. Students of IUE Department of Psychology revealed that individuals dining together reinforced their success and strengthened their relationships. The 48 participants played a computer game simultaneously and found themselves as hunters and navigators in Africa in the early ages.
The study titled, “Let’s Hunt! The Effect of Dinner Awarded As a Result of Hunting on Team Loyalty” showed that individuals who shared meals together felt more content in a team. The study performed by Kutlu Kağan Türkarslan, Merve Akça, and Nurdan Toprak, junior students of IUE Department of Psychology, proved that hunting and consuming the prey together played a role in the origins of team loyalty. The culture of hunting and consuming the prey together was created as a computer game as part of the research. The findings were awarded the “first prize” in evolutionary psychology at the 18th National Psychology Students Congress.
They Hunted in Africa and Found Directions
The subjects participated in a multiplayer computer game at the psychology laboratory as part of the research. Some of the participants were asked to hunt deer by using their arrows and spears and return to their tribes in a specific time while the second group of participants were given a map and asked to find directions back to their tribes. After the games ended, the hunters and navigators were also separated into two groups among themselves. The first group of hunters were offered chips and cokes, while the second was not offered any food or drinks. Same thing was done with the navigators. The results revealed that the levels of loyalty among the hunters were much higher compared to those of navigators. However, the level of loyalty and coexistence among the teams that were offered food increased.
The Primitive Drive behind Business Dinners
Kutlu Kağan Türkarslan, junior student of IUE Department of Psychology, stated the following:
“One of the ancestral reasons for the importance of dining together for modern day person is due to hunting-team loyalty in our minds. So, dining together stimulates an old but very strong system in our minds. In this way, individuals eating at the same table feel more strongly that they are part of the team. Maybe, the primitive drive behind people finalizing the weddings, parties, business meetings with dining together in modern age, increases their level of loyalty. Team members that share the same meal, share their meal as if they returned from a successful hunting organization, and feel themselves much better in the team.”
