Might as Well Finish Pie, Study Finds
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You might as well finish that pie, a new study has found.
The study, which appears in this week’s issue of the journal Eating, is actually a meta-analysis of 42 previous studies examining pie consumption. The oldest study is from 1983; the most recent, from 2015. All those data painted a clear picture, researchers concluded.
“In the end,” said lead author Monty Creosote, Ph.D., “you really should just go ahead and eat that last piece of pie.”
The study laid out a number of rationales for consuming the final slice of any given pie, all backed by science:
If you leave it much longer, it might go bad and then you’d have to throw it away.
Probably no one else wants it, otherwise it would already be eaten.
It’s lonely and it misses its pie slice family. You can arrange a reunion.
It’s breakfast time and there you are with a hot cup of coffee.
In the grand scheme of things, what’s one piece of pie?
Curiously, the study’s findings hold true regardless of the size of the last piece.
“We call this phenomenon wedge elasticity,” Creosote said. “The remainder of the pie could represent one-sixteenth of the original or one-third. Doesn’t matter. If it’s a discrete section of pie, surrounded by bare pie plate and a few crumbs, then by definition it is ‘the last piece’ and you should eat it.”
Pie eaters across the world welcomed the news.
“This study confirms something we’ve known all along,” said Terry Jones, editor of Pie Enthusiast magazine. “Namely, that you might as well go ahead and finish that pie.”
