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Moral judgments of food wasting predict food wasting behavior

Article  in  British Food Journal · May 2020

DOI: 10.1108/BFJ-07-2019-0576

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 TITLE: Moral judgments of food wasting predict food wasting behavior

Authors: Michał Misiak, Daniel Kruger, Jessica Sloan-Kruger, Piotr Sorokowski

Abstract

Purpose

People consider food wasting behavior to be immoral. However, it is not clear

whether people who consider food wasting behavior immoral waste less food. Building on
previous qualitative studies, we conducted a large-sample quantitative study. We examined
whether people who consider food wasting behavior immoral display food wasting behaviors
less frequently and whether they waste less food in general. Furthermore, we explored the
reasons that make people consider food wasting behavior immoral and whether they affected
food wasting.

Design/methodology/approach

Participants voluntarily (n = 562) completed a set of questionnaires that measured the

frequency of their food wasting behavior, the amount of food wasted in the preceding week,
and food wasting moral judgments, including scales, which explored the reasons for judging
this behavior as immoral.

Findings

We found that people who regard food wasting behavior as immoral displayed food
wasting behavior less frequently, but did not waste less food than people who did not
consider food wasting behavior immoral. Furthermore, we found that there are two categories
of reasons for moral disapproval of food wasting behavior: externally oriented (concern for
the environment, social issues, and for future generations) and internally oriented (concern
for ones’ financial situation, social approval, and going by traditional norms). However, only
people whose moral judgments were motivated by externally oriented reasons wasted food
less frequently.

Originality/value

Our findings provide evidence that moral judgments influence food wasting behavior
and highlight the importance of the content of moral beliefs for predicting behaviors.

Manuscript approved for publication in the British Food Journal

1
 1. Introduction

1.1. Food waste, a global issue

Food waste has become a global problem (Buzby & Hyman, 2012; Gustavsson et al., 2011). It

is estimated that roughly 30% of food is lost in the production process or wasted in consumers’

households (Gustavsson et al., 2011). Food is lost along the whole supply chain, yet consumers

are responsible for the most substantial portion of food waste in developed countries (Parfitt et

al., 2010). Estimates of food losses and food wastage range from 158-298 kg per person in

Europe and 194-389 kg per person per year globally (Corrado & Sala, 2018). In the European

Union (EU-28), 53% of all food waste is estimated to arise from households not utilizing the

food (47 million tonnes of 87 million tonnes) (Stenmarck et al., 2016). The overall economic

cost associated with food waste in Europe would amount to about 143 billion euros per year,

with almost two-thirds of this cost due to waste at the household level. This high share of costs

of food loss, compared to other sectors (e.g., production, retail), results from the high

proportion of edible food being wasted and the costs accumulating along the supply chain (e.g.,

processing, packaging, and retailing costs) (Stenmarck et al., 2016). The extent of costs of

wasting food at the household level suggests that actions aimed at reducing household food

waste might be especially beneficial.

Food waste leads to food overproduction, exacerbating environmental issues due to the

larger areas required for agriculture (Springmann et al., 2018). The expansion of agriculture to

maintain the food supply contributes directly to deforestation and a decrease in biodiversity

(Houghton, 2012). The overproduction of food also results in the waste and contamination of

drinkable water (Chapagain & James, 2013). Furthermore, food waste is also a source of

greenhouse gases, such as methane, which is even more harmful to the atmosphere than carbon

dioxide (Melikoglu et al., 2013). According to the World Economic Forum (2016), food crises

2
are one of the most significant global risks in the future, and food wasting practices interfere

with efforts to establish global food security.

1.2. Food wasting behavior

Food wasting behavior is associated with economic and demographic factors, like

household income (Setti et al., 2016), gender (Visschers et al., 2016), and age (Quested, Marsh,

Stunell, & Parry, 2013). However, there is a growing body of psychological research tackling

the problem of reducing food wasting behavior (Aitsidou et al., 2019, 2019; Farr‐Wharton et

al., 2014; Graham-Rowe et al., 2015; Kallbekken & Sælen, 2013; Porpino et al., 2016; Schanes

et al., 2018; Stancu et al., 2016).

1.3. Food wasting moral judgments

Food wasting is linked to morality across cultures (e.g., Poland, Indonesia, Tanzania)

(Misiak et al., 2018). Nonetheless, the majority of studies exploring attitudes toward food

wasting behavior were conducted in industrialized countries (for a review of the studies on

food wasting behavior in developing countries see: Aschemann-Witzel et al., 2018). Graham-

Rowe and colleagues (2014) conducted their study in Great Britain and identified moral

concerns as a motivation to reduce household food wasting behavior. They conducted semi-

structured interviews among 15 household food purchasers and provided qualitative data on

motivations to reduce household food waste. The first motivation was an economic one –

people are motivated to reduce household food wasting behavior to save money. The second

motivation was morality: people reduce household food wasting behavior because they feel

that it is the “right thing to do.” When asked about their reasons to believe that wasting food is

immoral, participants provided several reasons, e.g., respect for tradition, concern for the

3
environment, and concern for future generations. However, it is not clear whether each of these

reasons predicts moral judgments equally well.

Wasting food may induce guilt (Hamilton, et al., 2005; Parizeau et al., 2015; Quested

et al., 2013; WRAP, 2007). Although guilt is not exclusively linked to morality, it has been

shown that it may serve as a self-regulatory emotion, which arises when one commits a moral

transgression (Sheikh & Janoff-Bulman, 2010). Guilt motivates individuals to behave

prosocially and to avoid moral transgressions (Malti, 2016). This phenomenon has been

demonstrated by Stefan and colleagues (2013), who pointed out that guilt can predict intentions

to waste less food. Qi and Roe (2016) suggest that generating guilt may lead to household food

waste reduction by delineating a moral norm. Richter and Bokelmann (2018) demonstrated that

people who regard wasting food as morally reprehensible do so because wasting food is a result

of a bad conscience. Similarly to Qi and Roe (2016), they suggest addressing these consumer

feelings through awareness campaigns.

Moral norms regarding food wasting behavior may vary among different populations.

Misiak et al. (2018) demonstrated that traditional populations (i.e., pastoralists,

horticulturalists), where food acquisition is more difficult and complicated than in western

industrialized societies, may hold harsher moral norms toward food wasting behavior. They

hypothesized that moral norms toward food wasting behavior might serve as a cultural

adaptation to harsh environments, restricting people from wasting food. Still, it is poorly

understood why people in industrialized populations, where it is easy to obtain food, consider

food wasting behavior as immoral.

Psychological factors predict behavioral intentions (Ajzen, 1991). Although there is a

gap between intentions and behavior, intention-behavior consistency holds value for

practitioners and policymakers (Brentjens et al., 2019; Sheeran & Webb, 2016). Recently, it

has been argued that it is necessary to take into account moral norms as predictors of intention

4
(de Leeuw et al., 2015; Rivis et al., 2009). Incorporating moral norms may help minimize the

intention-behavior gap (Godin et al., 2005). Recent studies on attitudes toward the environment

have shown that moral norms significantly predict pro-environmental intentions, e.g. to recycle

(Chan & Bishop, 2013), to switch to an electric/hybrid vehicle (Nordlund et al., 2016), to

reduce air pollution (Ru et al., 2019), to donate for sustainable development (Pérez y Pérez &

Egea, 2019), and to act conservationally (Kaiser, 2006). In conclusion, exploring the link

between morality and food wasting behavior may help us to predict and affect the consumers’

food wasting behavior.

1.4. Current study

Although attitudes toward food wasting behavior are becoming a more prominent area

of research, little data on moral judgments of food wasting behavior currently exists. According

to (Haidt, 2008), “moral systems are interlocking sets of values, practices, institutions, and

evolved psychological mechanisms that work together to suppress or regulate selfishness and

make social life possible” (p. 70). Following this definition, we were interested in explaining

how people judge food wasting behavior, and we do not provide any argument whether they

should regard food wasting as immoral behavior. This prescriptive problem has been addressed

by the field of ethics (Mirosa et al., 2016; Tisenkopfs et al., 2019).

Building on prior work in the field, we outlined the central research hypothesis: People

who judge food wasting behavior immoral will waste less food. Furthermore, we explored

gender differences in food wasting behavior and moral judgments of food wasting behavior, as

previous studies generated inconclusive results (Principato et al., 2015; Secondi et al., 2015;

Visschers et al., 2016).

Even though moral judgments are often driven by emotions and intuitions (Haidt, 2001,

2007), some moral judgments are the results of deliberate conscious reasoning (Greene,

5
Nystrom, Engell, Darley, & Cohen, 2004; Greene & Haidt, 2002). Because of that, we

investigated whether people have any particular reasons for perceiving food wasting behavior

as immoral, and if so, which reasons are the strongest predictors of peoples’ food wasting moral

judgments. Based on a qualitative study (Graham-Rowe et al., 2014), we prepared and tested

possible motives that may influence moral judgments. Previous research has shown that people

who consider food wasting behavior to be immoral are mainly concerned with its negative

social impact, e.g., world hunger (Graham-Rowe et al., 2014). Furthermore, people who waste

food feel guilt – a social emotion that helps one navigate through relationships with other

humans and to act prosocially (Malti, 2016). This suggests that people may feel more obliged

to reduce their food wasting behavior when they are motivated by care for other people or the

environment. In our study, we wanted to explore whether different reasons for regarding food

wasting behavior as immoral form distinctive factors. We also tested a second hypothesis: The

most substantial reasons for people to believe that food wasting behavior is immoral are

environmental and social issues. We also wanted to explore whether any potential factor

underlying the reasons to judge food wasting behavior immoral may predict food wasting

behavior.

Different behaviors result in different amounts of wasted food (Romani et al., 2018).

Therefore, food wasting behavior was measured with two variables: frequency of food wasting

behavior and the amount of wasted food. Both measures are linked to food wasting behavior,

but they are not necessarily strongly related. People who rarely engage in food wasting

behavior might waste a large amont of food through a single action (e.g., when cleaning the

refridgerator). On the other hand, people who regularly engage in food wasting behavior might

waste small amounts of food (e.g., by regularly throwing away a few scraps from unfinished

meals). This issue is being acknowledged in contemporary research on food wasting behavior

6
(Aschemann-Witzel, de Hooge, Almli, & Oostindjer, 2018). We assumed that these two

measures would be correlated, although not strongly.

Finally, we explored whether a social desirability bias could influence the results of the

study. A social desirability bias occurs when a participant who is taking a questionnaire

presents a favorable image of themselves in order to conform to socially accepted values (Van

de Mortel, 2008). We assumed that people who admitted to wasting food might later report

judging food wasting behavior as less immoral to avoid presenting their actions as inconsistent

with their moral values (Krumpal, 2013).

2. Material and Methods

2.1 Participants

The study was conducted among 562 Polish participants, of which 393 were women

(age M = 25.6; SD = 6.77) and 166 were men (age M = 24.7; SD = 7.08). Three participants

declared that they were neither a man nor a woman. We decided to exclude data from this group

in the analysis where we controlled for sex as this group was too small to adequately identify

relationships.

The study was conducted online, recruiting participants via a Facebook page using a

snowball sampling technique—a method that has been successfully used in previous studies on

human behavior (Kosinski et al., 2015). The Facebook page was created solely for the study

and was closed immediately after completing data collection. It was named Psychological

study, and in the description, we stated that this page is for promoting a psychological study on

human behavior. We gathered the data during April and May of 2017. All participants provided

informed consent, remained anonymous, and were not offered participation incentives.

Participants did not receive any incentives for participating in the study.

7
 2.2 Measures

In our study, we used self-report measures. A recent study by van Herpen and

colleagues (2019) indicated that self-report surveys tend to underestimate the amount of wasted

food. We decided to use self-reports, as this method facilitates large-scale studies. van Herpen

and colleagues (2019) acknowledge that although other methods tend to provide more reliable

information on food waste, self-report methods could be used in large-scale studies as a low-

cost alternative to other methods, such as diaries or kitchen caddies.

Moral judgments of food wasting behavior: We used a three-step method of assessing

moral judgments of food wasting behavior. A similar method of questioning the participants,

called hard laddering, was used in previous studies on attitudes toward food wasting behavior

(Richter & Bokelmann, 2018). In the first step, participants were asked whether they regard

food wasting behavior as immoral with a simple question: Do you regard food wasting

behavior as immoral? We used this straightforward question to separate people who judge food

wasting behavior as immoral to ask them additional questions. Secondly, participants who

agreed that it is immoral were also asked about the reasons why they believe that food wasting

behavior is immoral. Based on the previous studies (Graham-Rowe et al., 2014), this measure

was constructed consisting of seven items on a 7-point Likert-type scale. Participants were

asked how much they agreed with the statements below (1 - totally disagree, 7 - totally agree).

Each of the items served as an independent scale.

8
I believe that food wasting behavior is immoral because through wasting food we:

1. disrespect our financial situation.

2. act against tradition.

3. do something that our friends will not accept.

4. contribute to social problems

5. contribute to environmental degradation

6. compound the situation of future generations.

After answering these six items, people were asked if there is any other reason why they

consider food wasting behavior to be immoral. We included a text box where they could list

additional reasons. We used this method as we believe it is a participant-friendly method of

assessing complex psychological phenomena.

Frequency of food wasting behavior: A 5-item Food Waste Scale asked participants

about the frequency of their food wasting behaviors. In the pilot study, we identified 30

different behavior types that are connected to generating food waste. We aimed to prepare a

short scale, suitable for large-scale online studies. A total of 70 people (age M = 24.13; SD =

1.50; 46 women) were asked to answer the question: How often do you engage in this kind of

behavior? They were asked to use a 7-point Likert-type scale (1- never, 7 - always). Based on

their responses, we conducted a reliability analysis. With the help of two independent judges

(psychologists), we picked a set of five items that show high reliability (α = .84) and are

semantically consistent with each other. We used these final items to assess and differentiate

the frequency of food wasting behavior of participants. The final score was calculated through

summing up the responses for each item (minimum = 5, maximum = 35).

9
 1. When I prepare a meal at my household, I sometimes put food excess in the trash.

2. When the expiration date is passed, I throw away food without checking if it is still

edible.

3. If there is an opportunity, I feed animals with the food I am not able to eat (reversed).

4. During shopping, I buy the exact amount of food that I will need that day. (reversed)

5. I throw away food I cannot eat, and I do not give it to other people.

Amount of wasted food: To assess the amount of food wasted, participants were asked

to think about the amount of food they threw away during the week that preceded the study and

to estimate the amount of food in grams. Based on previous studies on food waste (Quested &

Johnson, 2009; WRAP, 2009, 2010) a total of seven food groups were provided (1. bread and

baked goods; 2. meats: beef, pork, poultry, fish; 3. dairy; 4. fruits; 5. vegetables; 6. sweets; 7.

other products). We provided food groups to make it easier for participants to estimate the

amount of food they wasted. Participants were presented with a text box for each food group

where they could write down the estimated amount of grams they wasted during the preceding

week.

Social desirability bias: We decided to change the order of the questionnaires

approximately in the middle of the study to minimize the social desirability bias. After 273

participants completed the study (49% of the whole sample), the order of the questions was

changed. In the first version, the scale on the frequency of food wasting behavior and the

questions about the amount of wasted food was arranged before the questions on moral

judgments. The order was reversed in the second version; therefore, we came up with two

conditions for the sample (C1 and C2).

We included the abovementioned scales in Appendix 1.

10
 2.3. Statistical analyses

All the analyses were conducted in jamovi (jamovi project, 2019). We separated the

analyses into three steps. Each step addressed a different problem.

First step: Moral judgments and food wasting behavior. In this step, we wanted to

verify whether participants judged food wasting behavior as immoral and whether this

judgment was associated with the frequency of food wasting behavior (measured with the Food

Wasting Scale) and with the amount of wasted food. We assessed the percentage of people who

regarded food wasting behavior as immoral, and we verified whether there were gender

differences in this judgment. A two-way independent ANOVA was conducted to test whether

moral judgment (Do you regard food wasting behavior as immoral? Y/N) and gender of the

participant were associated with the frequency food wasting behaviors declared in the Food

Waste Scale. This scale was also used to test whether moral judgments and gender were

associated with the declared sum of grams of wasted food.

Second step: Factors of reasons for moral disapproval of food wasting behavior. In this

step, we wanted to explore whether the reasons for moral disapproval of food wasting behavior

form distinct factors and, if so, whether they are related to gender or age. We conducted a factor

analysis to identify common factors and because of the correlations between different reasons

we used an oblique rotation. A principal axis factor analysis was conducted on six items with

direct oblimin rotation. The KMO measure of .68 verified the sampling adequacy for the

analysis. An initial analysis was run to obtain eigenvalues for each factor. We conducted an

independent sample t-test to examine whether there are gender differences and a correlational

analysis to assess the relationship with age. We also counted the frequency of other reasons

that were proposed by the participants.

Third step: Reasons for moral disapproval and food wasting behavior. We conducted

multiple linear regression analysis in order to verify whether particular reasons for moral

11
disapproval could predict food wasting behavior. We performed two models: 1) with Food

Waste Scale as a dependent variable and 2) with the amount of wasted food (Ln) as a dependent

variable.

Fourth step: Social desirability bias. In order to verify whether any social desirability

bias occurred, we conducted an independent sample t-tests where we compared the two

conditions with different order of questions (C1 and C2). We verified whether there were

differences in ratings of the reasons for moral disapproval of food wasting behavior, the Food

Waste Scale, and the amount of declared grams of wasted food.

We provided additional exploratory analyses in Appendix 2. We present the mean and

standard deviation of the declared sum of grams for each food product and an estimation of the

yearly amount of wasted food. We also provide the correlations between the scores of moral

disapproval for food wasting behavior for different reasons.

3. Results

3.1. First step: Moral judgments and food wasting behavior

We found that 78% (n = 439) of participants considered food wasting behavior to be

immoral and 22% (n = 123) did not. Women were more likely to judge food wasting behavior

as immoral (80.4%) than men (72.3%, ꭓ2 (1) = 4.48, p = .034). Our data met the assumption of

homogeneity (Levene’s test p > 0.05), and the qq plot of standardized residuals for the model

approximated a normal distribution. There was a significant effect of the moral judgment on

the results of the Food Waste Scale (means and standard deviations are presented in Table 1).

People who considered food wasting behavior as immoral reported less frequent food wasting

behaviors, F(1, 555) = 47.39, p < .001. We found no significant effects of gender (p = .344) or

12
interaction between gender and moral judgment (p = .455). Furthermore, we found that the

reliability of the Food Waste Scale was lower than in the pilot study (α = .55).

The sum of the grams variable did not meet the criteria for normal distribution

(skewness = 5.68), and therefore a log transformation was used (skewness = -.752). Using a

log transformation is a standard procedure to handle data that do not meet the assumption for

normal distribution (Field, 2013). No significant effects were found for moral judgment (p =

.237), gender (p = .854) or the interaction between gender and moral judgment (p = .945) on

the sum of grams of wasted food.

Apart from the primary analyses, we found that a higher frequency of food wasting

behavior was associated with larger amounts of food wasted, as indicated by a correlation

between the Food Waste Scale and the sum of grams of wasted food (Ln) (r = .275, p < .001).

Table 1.

Means and standard deviations for scores of Food Wasting Scale and sum of grams of wasted

food (Ln) among men and women who regarded food wasting behavior as immoral and those

who didn’t.

Is food wasting Gender Food Wasting Scale Sum of grams (Ln)

behavior Mean (SD) Mean (SD)

immoral?

Women 14.58 (4.74) 5.58 (1.37)

Yes
Men 15.49 (5.26) 5.62 (1.17)

Women 18.68 (5.72) 5.78 (1.36)

No
Men 18.78 (4.60) 5.80 (1.32)

Note. Ln – log-transformed data.

13
3.2. Second step: Factors of reasons for moral disapproval of food wasting behavior.

We found two factors with eigenvalues over one that explained 51.67% of the variance. The

items clustering on the same factor suggested that factor 1 represents externally-oriented

reasons, and factor 2 represents internally-oriented reasons for moral disapproval of food

wasting behavior. Table 2 shows the factor loadings after rotation. We found a correlation

between the factors (r = .23, p <.001). We found no significant differences between genders

(externally-oriented reasons p > 0.11, internally-oriented reasons p > 0.07) and no significant

correlation with age (externally-oriented reasons p > 0.72, internally-oriented reasons p > 0.10).

Table 2.

Factor loadings on reasons for moral disapproval of food wasting behavior.

Factor 1
Factor 2
(Externally-oriented
(Self-oriented reasons)
reasons)

Environment .81 -.04

Future generations .78 .08

Social issues .69 -.02

Tradition -13 .87

Friends -.01 .66

Financial .10 .39

Note. Factor loadings > .30 are boldfaced.

14
 We additionally asked people to provide us with other reasons for why they consider

food wasting behavior to be immoral. We analyzed their answers, and we found ten additional

reasons that were not reported in the study of Graham-Rowe and colleagues (2014) (Table 3).

We reported only the reasons that were distinct from the six original reasons.

Table 3.

List of additional reasons for considering food wasting behavior immoral and the number of

people who reported these reasons in the questionnaire.

% of study sample
Additional reasons n
(n = 436)

1. It is disrespectful for the work of other people. 36 8.26 %

2. The animals had to die and suffer for nothing. 22 5,06 %

3. It reinforces consumerism. 18 4,13 %

4. This food could be fed to hungry animals. 13 2.98 %

5. It is stupid, irrational. 12 2,75 %

6. It is selfish and disgraceful. 7 1.61 %

7. You are harming yourself. 5 1.15 %

8. It reinforces a harmful cultural norm. 5 1.15 %

9. It is disrespectful for the food. 5 1.15 %

10. Food is a gift from God. 3 0.68 %

15
3.3. Third step: Reasons for moral disapproval and food wasting behavior.

The externally-oriented reasons factor significantly predicted scores on the Food Waste

Scale, F(2,433) = 6.23, p < .01, with an R2 of .03. This was the only significant predictor of the

Food Waste Scale score. We found no significant prediction for the model with the amount of

food wasted as the dependent variable, F(2,370) = .05, p = .948. The standardized beta

coefficients for both models are presented in Table 4.

Table 4.

Standarized beta coefficients for models considering food wasting behavior and two factors of

reasons for moral disapproval of food wasting

Model A: Model B:

Food wasting scale The amount of wasted food

B (SE) β B (SE) β

Model A: R2 = .03

Model B: R2 < .01

Constant 14.83 (.23) 5.59 (.07)

Externally-oriented -.93* (.26) -.17 -.03 (.08) -.02

Self-oriented .13 (.27) .02 .01 (.08) .01

Note. *p < .001

3.4. Fourth step: Social desirability bias

People who answered the questions about food wasting behavior first (C1) declared weaker

moral concerns for the environment (M = 5.34, SD = 1.69) and for future generations (M =

16
4.96, SD = 1.89) than people who answered the questions about their moral judgments first

(C2) (environment (M = 5.70, SD = 1.43): t(436) = -3.57, p < 0.001; future generations (M =

5.49, SD = 1.65): t(436) = -3.12, p < 0.015). We found no significant differences between any

other reasons for moral concerns (p > .05). There were no differences between conditions either

on the Food Waste Scale or on the declared amount of wasted food (p > 0.05).

4. Discussion

The objective of this study was to examine moral judgments of food wasting behavior

and the associations with self-reported food wasting behavior. The results suggest that food

wasting is considered an immoral behavior, consistent with previous qualitative results

(Graham-Rowe et al, 2014). Moreover, women judged food wasting behavior as immoral more

frequently than men did. Echoing previous studies, women make stronger moral judgments

when it comes to harm, fairness, and purity related behaviors (Graham et al., 2011). It appears

that food wasting behavior is another domain in which women tend to hold more stringent

moral beliefs. In cultures where women are responsible for grocery shopping and food

preparation, moral attitudes towards food wasting behavior could arise as a result of higher

awareness of the extra-costs and more frequent feelings of guilt when throwing away food

(Koivupuro et al., 2012; Secondi et al., 2015). Gender, however, was not linked with food

wasting behavior. Although our study supports the view that gender does not influence food

wasting behavior, there is a need for further clarification. Previous studies reported that women

displayed more frequent food wasting behavior (Visschers et al., 2016); some reported women

to waste less food than men (Secondi et al., 2015), and some reported no gender differences

(Principato et al., 2015).

17
 People who regarded food wasting behavior as immoral reported less frequent food

wasting behaviors. More importantly, we identified two categories of reasons: externally-

oriented and internally-oriented. Externally-oriented reasons refer to environmental

degradation, social issues, and the well-being of future generations. On the other hand,

internally-oriented reasons refer to ones' financial situation, social approval, and going by

traditional norms. These reasons directly deal with the well-being of a person who holds these

believes as they may impair financial status and lead to social ostracism.

People who judge food wasting behavior as immoral because of externally-oriented

reasons waste food less frequently. It seems that these reasons provide better motivation for

people to cut on their food wasting behavior than internally-oriented reasons, which were not

related to food wasting behavior. This is in line with evidence that moral judgments of

environmentally friendly behaviors predict the actual pro-environmental behavior (Bamberg &

Möser, 2007). For example, it has been found that national populations who care more about

the well-being of future generations, also care for the future environment as indicated by the

lower emission of CO2 (Kasser, 2011). Interestingly, reduction in food wasting behavior would

contribute to lower emissions of greenhouse gases (Melikoglu et al., 2013), and in turn, it could

help preserve the environment for future generations. Our study provides further evidence that

externally-oriented reasons may contribute to pro-environmental behavior.

Peoples’ moral judgments did not predict the declared amount of wasted food, though

the frequency of food wasting behavior and the amount of wasted food had a weak correlation.

Future research should explore moral judgments of food wasting behaviors concerning each

behavior, and the exact amount of food waste it produces—throwing away food scraps

regularly may generate less food waste than sporadically throwing away a large amount of

food.

18
 Some evidence for social desirability bias was found. People that were first asked about

their food wasting behavior gave lower ratings for the importance of the environment and future

generations reasons for avoiding wasting food. This finding suggests that people modify the

reasons behind their moral judgments toward food wasting behavior after they admit to food

wasting behavior (Barkan et al., 2012). Although it is puzzling why only these particular moral

judgments were affected by the order of questionnaires, this result points to the importance of

acknowledging human bias in conducting questionnaire studies on food wasting behaviors.

Certain limitations of this study should be taken into account. First of all, the study was

based on self-report questionnaire data. Although it is challenging to collect non-declarative

data on moral judgments, it is possible to collect data on the amount of wasted food through

the actual analysis of household waste (Parizeau et al., 2015). Furthermore, the reliability

analysis of the Food Wasting Scale has shown a low consistency of item scores. It could be

that the questionnaire with higher consistency would demonstrate stronger correlations with

food wasting moral judgments. Secondly, our sample consisted of mostly younger adults – for

this reason, we have not been able to test moral judgments of food wasting behavior among

people aged over 65 years – a group of people that wastes significantly less food (Quested et

al., 2013). Also, we did not control for the number of socio-economic factors that may be linked

to food wasting behavior, such as the household size, level of income, and the area of residence

– urban or rural.

Furthermore, more specific information about the household may be helpful (e.g., How

many people are living in the same household? Does the participant purchase the food? Is the

participant responsible for food preparation and food disposal of the entire household?). This

would allow us to design a better model as socioeconomic determinants are linked to household

food waste (Quested et al., 2013). Also worth considering is that the list of reasons for moral

disapproval of food wasting behavior was drawn from a particular population — UK citizens

19
(Graham-Rowe et al., 2014). Because of this, we included a text box in our questionnaire where

people could spontaneously write about additional reasons they regard food wasting behavior

immoral. Among many reasons, Polish people reported they regard food wasting behavior

immoral because it is disrespectful for other peoples’ work, disrespectful for animals who died

and suffered, and that it reinforces consumption. This additional list of reasons may be explored

in future studies on moral judgments of food wasting behaviors. Human populations vary in

their judgments toward food wasting behavior (Misiak et al., 2018), and therefore different

populations may have different reasons to regard food wasting behavior immoral. Finally,

externally-oriented reasons explained only about around 3% of variance in the results of the

frequency of food wasting behavior. Although externally-oriented reasons add to the

complexity of predictors of food wasting, they might have a minor impact considering other

potential factors (Quested et al., 2013).

The results of our study have some implications for policymakers and campaign

managers who want to change people’s attitudes toward food wasting behavior. Our study may

benefit information campaigns, which are one of the most comprehensive tools used to prevent

and reduce food waste in industrialized countries (Nikolaus et al., 2018; Priefer et al., 2016).

Researchers argue that for each consumer profile, a different waste reduction policy should be

adopted (Di Talia et al., 2019). Our results indicate that people who regard food wasting

behavior as immoral due to externally-oriented reasons may waste less food. It may be the case

that informing those who are already concerned with environment, social issues, and the

situation of future generations about the negative impact of food wasting behavior can be more

effective than informing the general public (given limited resources for the campaign).

Another implication concerns the possibility of reducing food wasting behavior through

value-based campaigns (Diaz-Ruiz et al., 2018). Specific obstacles to such campaigns should

be taken into account, such as the ‘backfiring' effect of blaming people for wasting (Birau &

20
Faure, 2018), or that through suggesting to people that they behave immorally, campaigners

may interfere with their self-integrity – perceiving oneself as a moral person (Graham-Rowe et

al., 2019). Our study provides another suggestion for such campaigns – it might be better to

target externally-oriented reasons for moral disapproval of food wasting behavior rather than

to convey general statements that food wasting behavior is immoral, unethical, or only wrong.

Thus, activists can focus on building particular messages implying that wasting behavior is

immoral due to environmental and social issues and that food wasting behavior hinders the

situation of future generations.

4.1. Conclusion

People often judge food wasting behavior as immoral—it is not clear, however, whether

this judgment is associated with food wasting behavior. Our study complements previous

studies that initially proposed that moral judgments play a role in food wasting behavior. We

found that 78% of participants judged food wasting behavior as immoral (with women judging

it immoral more frequently). Our further analyses suggest that even if people agree that food

wasting behavior is immoral, it is necessary to distinguish between different reasons for such

judgments. We found at least two categories of such reasons: externally-oriented (food wasting

behavior harms the environment, future generations and contributes to social issues) and

internally-oriented (food wasting behavior impairs financial situation, it is against the tradition

and it is unacceptable by one's friends). People who judged food wasting behavior immoral

because of externally-oriented reasons declared less frequent food wasting behaviors. No such

association was found in case of internally-oriented reasons.

We asked participants to identify additional reasons for regarding food wasting

behavior as immoral. Their responses suggested that the distinction between externally-

21
oriented and internally-oriented reasons might not be sufficient and that there might be other

categories of reasons (for example, some people stated that food wasting behavior is

disrespectful for the work of other people or that food wasting behavior means that animals

had to die and suffer for nothing).

We believe that future research should account for the variability of reasons for moral

judgments of food wasting behavior. Asking simple questions about whether one considers

food wasting immoral/wrong/unethical misses the various reasons by which people reach this

conclusion. These reasons might be crucial in predicting food wasting behavior. Also, focusing

on the reasons for moral judgment instead of a moral judgment per se could help to establish

whether morality is indeed an important factor affecting food wasting behavior. This, in turn,

could lead to effective use of moral messages by policymakers and campaigners aiming at

decreasing food waste, thereby helping to meet the food demands of future generations.

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