Free food sometimes feels like a ambush . Take too much and you risk spending the rest of the day wracked with guilt ( or being publically shamed for your greed ) , but take too little and you ’ll think continuously about that extraKit Katyou could have had .
Finally , science has tackle this quandary . Researchpublished in theBMJlooked at hungry medical workers ’ behavior in a bite - filled room in which they are explicitly tell , by a sign on the paries , not to take “ excessive quantities ” of hot drinks and/or cookies .
“ inordinate ” is obviously a nebulous condition and open to interpretation by the hungry , thirsty , and heavily - workings , but the mean figure of speech have by respondents as to where the line of work of excess is drawn was 3.32 drinks in one visit . So , three coffees and everyone ’s fine , but one in three people who see you take that fourth one will shake off their heads in disgust .
Will power might just play a cistron in how people react to freebies . When responsible for acquiring their owncoffee , the average respondent consumed 3.04 cup — meaning an acceptable amount of innocent java to take in one go is slightly more than what you ’d drink in a full day on your own one dollar bill . “ I have absolutely no self mastery when things are devoid , ” one respondent admitted .
( It is worth show out that , for this determination of this experimentation , these were taxpayer - funded UK National Health Service coffees , which are not bang for being large or tasty — so we ’re not verbalize about a perfectly inclined 20 - ounce mocha here . )
Cookie - wise , responder learn that making off with any more than 2.25 “ snack size of it “ bundle was inordinate — which is more than a whole “ unit of measurement “ fewer than the acceptable number of free coffee tree .
The human body given were per sojourn to the snack elbow room , which suggests the next area of research should potentially be frequency of visit — because three coffee bean every 45 minutes is a whole new world . But excess is ultimately in the eye of the afternoon tea - holder . If a few underhanded bites of biscuit are what keeps an overworked nurse from totally losing it , or a fillip coffee bean helps an emergency room doctor more easily get through a try 20 - hour break , it is in question anyone would hold that against them .
