The Rise of Mukbang: The Psychology of Why We Enjoy Watching People Eat

What is Mukbang?

Mukbang is a popular online video or live stream where the content creator eats large quantities of food in front of the camera. This can be anything from fast food, desserts, or new restaurant menu items. The term originated in South Korea, combining the Korean words “meokneun” (eating) and “bang song” (broadcast). Usually, eating sounds like crunching, chewing, or dipping food in sauces are elevated, and the creator interacts with the audience. Users show close-ups of the food and eat very close to the camera. This creates a sense of nearness to the viewer, almost as if they are eating with you.

Mukbang became popular in 2008, when it first appeared online on AfreecaTV. The Mukbang trend became popular in South Korea and expanded to American youtubers in 2015. Today, Mukbang is a very popular video genre worldwide. #Muckbang has over 8.6 million posts on TikTok. Mukbang creators like Nikocado Avocado have 4.72 million YouTube subscribers and JaneMuckbang has 7.9 million subscribers on TikTok.

You might wonder, what is the appeal? Why would anyone want to listen to someone eating loudly? Or why do I enjoy these videos? If someone was eating very close to you, making loud chewing or crunching sounds, you’d probably be very uncomfortable. So why is it that we enjoy watching videos of people eating? There are several reasons for this, which are backed up by psychology. A recent scoping review (which looked at all existing research on Mukbang) found five main reasons that viewers enjoy Mukbang. However, looking at the existing research, there are also a lot of dangers in watching Mukbang. A lot of research is based on disordered eating and addictive tendencies.

The Psychology Behind Mukbang

Feelings of Loneliness and Emotional Connection

Mukbang can counteract feelings of loneliness. Most of the time, viewers watch mukbang videos at mealtimes, or late-night snack times. Mukbang is used to facilitate the feeling of eating together, as a coping mechanism for eating alone. This makes sense, since there is a worldwide epidemic of loneliness in young people, who are the main viewers of Mukbang. These videos create ‘eating partners’, which foster feelings of connection and closeness.

Like many hobbies and interests, Mukbang creates communities. Through comment sections on videos and livestreams, viewers feel a sense of connection and relatability to each other. Even though they don’t know each other, the live chats can be more important for the viewers than the actual video itself – they meet people who are likely also eating, have the same opinions of the food in the video, and they enjoy this specific content creators Mukbang’s. This creates a sense of comfort and emotional connection to the other viewers – they may not know each other, but they can relate to each other, relieve feelings of loneliness and provide a sense of comfort for one another.

Sensory Satisfaction

Since Mukbang videos include eating sounds like chewing, crunching or slurping; and sounds of creators preparing the food (i.e., opening packages, plating up food), viewers feel satisfied. These feelings come from an autonomous meridian response (more commonly known as ASMR) which causes a static-like, tingling sensation in the skin.

People feel satisfied when packaging and eating makes loud noises – i.e., make the noises they are ‘supposed’ to make. For example, the rustling sound of opening a package induces ASMR because the viewer is satisfied that the package made the noise it was associated with.

Similarly, the viewers enjoy hearing munching noises when a creator eats crunchy foods, since it is in line with what the food ‘should’ sound like. ASMR reduces feelings of stress, anxiety, and elevates feelings of happiness. Not only does Mukbang reduce feelings of loneliness, it can provide relief for those who enjoy ASMR.

Eating Experiences through Visual and Audio Stimulation

The research showed that many viewers watch Mukbang because it was a way for them to ‘eat’ the foods they wanted. For many reasons, viewers crave the food in the Mukbang’s they watch, but can’t access it – i.e., restrictive diets, allergies, or no nearby access. Through watching close-ups of the foods they desire, seeing small details of the food, as well as hearing the creators eat, it creates a sort of ‘satisfaction’ of their cravings.

Mukbang creates a vicarious eating experience through visual and auditory stimulation. This could explain why Mukbang reels are popular on TikTok – viewers can ‘consume’ large amounts of food through short, even 15-second reels. These keep viewers hooked; which allows them to consume more content, and further satisfy (or create even more) cravings. The viewer can quickly skip foods they dislike until they find one they like, in a very short time frame. Here, the viewer can experience ‘eating’ vast amounts of food, while not actually eating anything.

Escapism

Escapism is the habitual diversion of the mind to escape reality, which is another reason people watch Mukbang. People use Mukbang to relieve stress and feelings of shame. The research suggests that some viewers watch Mukbang because they feel ashamed of their body or guilty about their eating habits. Watching videos of strangers consuming large quantities of food helps them to ‘escape’ from these feelings of guilt and shame and feel better about their own eating habits.

Similarly, some viewers watch Mukbang because it is a psychological escape from an unpleasant reality. There are a lot of visual and auditory stimuli to focus on, a wide range of content creators and food types to choose from. Mukbang is a good distraction and gives feelings of comfort to viewers wanting to escape from their harsh realities or eating disorders. As a result, viewers temporarily reduce their negative feelings. From this perspective, Mukbang is used as a coping mechanism.

Sexual Use

Some viewers tend to sexualise Mukbang, which was the final reason the research found. A large portion of this is female creators watched by male viewers.

For these viewers, Mukbang has a sexual aspect since the creator is in a quiet, vulnerable state (i.e., eating). Women eating large portions making loud chewing or slurping noises has a shameful, degrading aspect for these viewers, where they experience voyeurism.

Some Mukbangers are aware of their male audiences and encourage these behaviours through provocative content (i.e., eating food that’s easily sexualised like bananas or sausages, or not filtering inappropriate comment sections). This keeps their content relevant and accessible in their viewers suggested reels or for you pages on TikTok. However, this cycle maintains the notion that women should inherently be slim, have small appetites, be ashamed of eating and always be quiet (i.e., not make a lot of noise when eating).

While not all Mukbang creators profit from Mukbang sexualisation, or want to, it may partially explain why there are more female Mukbangers than male.

Mukbang: What Does the Research Tell Us?

When you dive into Mukbang research, most of it doesn’t even focus on the psychology of why people enjoy it – most of the research focuses on eating disorders and phone addiction. Even looking at the psychology of why people enjoy Mukbang shows that a lot of the viewers are very lonely, have issues with body esteem, unhealthy coping mechanisms, or poor attitudes towards women.

Through Mukbang, we can see how many young people are struggling with loneliness, eating disorders, addiction or unhealthy attitudes towards women. The question is not just what issues are arising from Mukbang anymore, but how many young people are struggling with these issues.