The infinite soup experiment
Our habits happen without us realizing it (and how to change it)
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🏷️ Categories: Habits, Behavior, Continuous Improvement.
In the 2000s, a group of scientists from Cornell University conducted a curious experiment.
They invited several people to participate in what appeared to be a simple study about eating. Each participant was given a bowl of tomato soup and asked to eat until they felt satisfied.
But some of those bowls had a trick.
They were connected to a hidden tube under the table that slowly refilled the soup from the bottom, so the level barely went down while participants were eating (Wansink et al., 2005).
The participants didn’t know.
The surprising part came later.
People with the “bottomless bowl” ate up to 73% more soup than those with a normal bowl. However, when asked how much they thought they had eaten, their estimates were practically the same as everyone else’s. They also didn’t report feeling much fuller (Wansink et al., 2005).
In other words: they had eaten much more… without realizing it.
The experiment revealed something important: visual cues in our environment influence how much we eat, even when we’re not aware of it (Wansink et al., 2005; Herman, 2005). Later experiments found similar results: people who eat from a “bottomless” bowl tend to consume more without noticing (Lopez et al., 2023).
Many of our habits work in a similar way.
We fall into certain patterns and routines without being aware of the factors driving our decisions. Just as participants in the experiment couldn’t know how much they were eating without a clear signal telling them, you and I can’t master our habits without being aware of what we do every day.
Awareness is the first step to building good habits and breaking bad ones.
Without it, even the smartest and most disciplined people may struggle to make good decisions consistently.
This leads to an inevitable question:
What can you do to increase your level of awareness?
How can you change your bad habits if you don’t even know they’re there?
Here’s the answer.
To improve, you must measure
“For Google to really take off as a company, it had to gather accurate and timely data to track its progress.” — John Doerr, Measure What Matters
We can only improve what we are able to observe.
It makes little sense to expect that you’ll suddenly become aware of what matters if you have no signal telling you whether you’re moving forward or not. That’s why the first step is to measure and record what you do.
To illustrate this, here are a few examples that I’ve personally put into practice.
Writing
For almost a year I measured two things about my writing process: how many words I wrote per session and how long it took me to finish each article.
Before long, patterns started to appear.
Some articles took almost twice as long. When I reviewed the data, I saw that they were the ones that included more academic research: I struggled to turn it into a clear and useful explanation. With that information I adjusted my process: separating research and writing more clearly and preparing better outlines.
My writing times went down and creative blocks disappeared.
Everything started with two numbers: words written and time invested.
Training
For a while I thought I was training with intensity.
But when I started tracking my workouts, I discovered a different reality.
Inspired by a good friend, after each session I began writing down three things: date, type of exercise, and performance (repetitions, distance, or weight). After a few weeks, clear patterns appeared. I wasn’t distributing intensity well between exercises, and I was training different parts of the body unevenly.
The improvement didn’t start with a new plan — it started with writing down what I was doing.
Hydration
Probably the simplest and most striking case.
For a long time I thought I was drinking enough water. Until one day I decided to count how many glasses I drank per day. I started marking each glass in a note on my phone, and the result was surprising: some days I barely reached three.
That small record changed my behavior instantly.
When I saw few marks, I remembered to drink more and added a goal: gradually increase the daily amount. Over time, staying hydrated became a natural habit.
Everything started with counting how many times I drank water each day.
In none of these cases did I think, “I must change everything.” I simply wanted to see what I was doing.
I paid attention to my routine.
I wrote it down (words, time, repetitions, glasses).
I reviewed it.
By observing the data, ideas for improvement appeared naturally, step by step, without forcing big changes. That’s the vital importance of measuring.
Paying attention
That’s why I insist so much on the importance of paying attention.
Nothing changes if you don’t observe what you do. If you’re not aware of your decisions, there’s no way to improve them — no matter how smart you are.
With that in mind, here’s a simple challenge: choose something important in your life and measure it for one week.
Don’t try to change everything or do everything perfectly.
Don’t obsess over collecting thousands of data points either.
Just write it down, observe, and become aware of that habit or activity.
When you start to clearly see where your time and energy go, the next improvement usually appears on its own. Your attention is indispensable for almost everything.
What isn’t measured doesn’t exist.
Want to learn more? Here are 3 related ideas to go deeper:
✍️ Your turn: What small data point about your life (hours, repetitions, words, glasses, steps) could reveal a pattern you don’t see today?
💭 Quote of the day: “We only see what we look for. To look is an act of choice.” — John Berger, Ways of Seeing
See you next time! 👋
References 📚
Herman, C. P. (2005). Lessons from the Bottomless Bowl. Obesity Research URL
Lopez, A., Choi, A. K., Dellawar, N. C., Cullen, B. C., Contreras, S. A., Rosenfeld, D. L., & Tomiyama, A. J. (2023). Visual cues and food intake: A preregistered replication of Wansink et al. (2005). Journal Of Experimental Psychology General, 153(2), 275-281. URL
Wansink, B., Painter, J. E., & North, J. (2005). Bottomless Bowls: Why Visual Cues of Portion Size May Influence Intake. Obesity Research, 13(1), 93-100. URL