(Georgia Tech: Atlanta) -- With the holiday season upon us—and all the festive food it brings—people should know that the color contrast between dinnerware and what’s placed on top can affect how much we serve ourselves and consume, according a Georgia Tech College of Management researcher.

“Instead of scooping vanilla ice cream into a white bowl, you’d do better by your diet to pick a different color dish,” explains Koert van Ittersum, an associate professor of marketing at Georgia Tech, who conducted this research with marketing professor Brian Wansink of Cornell University.

Their study, published in the Journal of Consumer Research, sheds light on why people tend to over-serve themselves when given larger plates and bowls.

The researchers found that our susceptibility to over-serve ourselves has to do with the Delboeuf illusion, first discovered in 1865. This illusion leads people to perceive two identical circles positioned side by side as dissimilar in size if one is surrounded by a large circle and the other by a smaller circle. They perceive the latter as larger.

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