Eating dinner while watching a show, scrolling through reels or catching up on YouTube has become almost second nature. For many people, the screen is simply part of the meal. But psychology research suggests that this seemingly harmless habit may change the way we experience food, particularly when it comes to recognising one of the body’s most important signals during a meal. That signal is satiety, or the feeling that you have had enough to eat.
When attention is divided between food and a screen, the brain has fewer resources available to notice what is happening during the meal. This does not mean that everyone who eats in front of a screen will overeat, but research suggests that distraction can make it harder to accurately register fullness and may influence how much people eat later.
