Divide pay during dates! A date trend called ‘Foodie Call’ shows people are dating for free meals rather than romance

Free food over love? A new trend called, ‘Foodie Call’, a term that alarmingly rhymes with ‘Booty Call’ is taking over the dating-world in a yet again disappointing news. The dating term is when a person sets up a date with someone they are not romantically interested in, for the purpose of getting a free meal. And now a new research finds that 23 - 33% of women into online dating says they've engaged in a "foodie call."

The research, by Brian Collisson, Jennifer Howell, and Trista Harig of Azusa Pacific University and UC Merced, that appeared  in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science found that women who scored high on the "dark triad" of personality traits as well as expressed traditional gender role beliefs, were most likely to engage in a foodie call and find it acceptable.

For the first study, 820 women were recruited, with 40% reporting they were single, 33% married, and 27% saying they were in a committed relationship but not married.  The finding showed that 23% of women in this first group revealed they'd engaged in a foodie call.

While many admitted they did foodie call occasionally or rarely many women who had engaged in a foodie call believed it was more acceptable.

The second study analyzed a similar set of questions of 357 heterosexual women and found 33% had engaged in a foodie call. It is important to note, however, that neither of these studies recruited representative samples of women, so we cannot know if these percentages are accurate for women in general.

For both groups, those that engaged in foodie calls scored higher in the "dark triad" personality traits.

"Several dark traits have been linked to deceptive and exploitative behavior in romantic relationships, such as one-night stands, faking an orgasm, or sending unsolicited sexual pictures," says Collisson.

Collisson and Harig, said they became interested in the subject of foodie calls after reading about the phenomenon in the news.

"They could be more prevalent, for instance, if women lied or misremembered their foodie calls to maintain a positive view of their dating history," says Collisson.

The researchers also added that could occur in many types of relationships, and could be committed by all genders.