Share Food To Show Off Your Love

If you're the type of person who likes making single friends jealous, then make sure to share your fork with your lover the next time you're out to dinner with the singletons.

A new study, published in the journal Appetite, found that observers considered couples sharing food to be more involved.

Researchers had 118 college students watch short videos of a man and woman eating a meal. Sometimes, a man fed a woman food he had already taken a bite of; in others, he fed her food he hadn't touched. Other videos showed the genders switched, and in some, neither person fed the other.

Observers found that couples who ate off the same fork or shared already-nibbled pieces were seen as "highly involved" and more attracted to each other.

The explanation? "Cases of 'contaminated' food sharing have some similarity to mouth-to-mouth kissing in that both reflect a willingness to accept biological 'contamination' from the other person," study author Thomas Alley wrote.

But of course, food sharing might just be an indication of close relationships. "In broader perspective, food sharing probably influences actual relationships and behaviors, and not just the impressions of onlookers," Alley wrote. So maybe sharing food is the ultimate sign of being in a relationship? It's the end of "The Talk" as we know it.