School of Economics and Management, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Apr 1;19(7):4187. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19074187.
Based on norm activation theory, a research framework was built to explore the food waste reduction behavior when consumers eat out. The framework included behavior intentions and four psychological factors: awareness of consequence (persons understanding that actions have consequences), ascription of responsibility (duty to respond), self-efficacy (belief in own skills and capacity), personal norm (individuals' values to act by socially accepted rules and reduce food waste as a code of conduct and moral obligation). A total of 514 samples from different regions of China were collected through an online survey platform, and the research framework was tested by applying structural equation modeling (SEM). This study found that ascription of responsibility and self-efficacy can effectively activate personal norm to reduce food waste. Personal norm and self-efficacy had a significant positive effect on behavior intentions to reduce food waste. Specifically, self-efficacy had the greatest effect on personal norm, followed by ascription of responsibility, and on behavior intentions to reduce food waste, followed by personal norm. Interestingly, while ascription of responsibility and self-efficacy had an impact on personal norm, awareness of consequence did not significantly influence personal norm to reduce food waste, suggesting that emotional factors are more likely to trigger personal norms that motivate consumers to take action to reduce food waste than cognitive factors. Based on the findings, several suggestions are provided for more effective interventions by restaurants to promote food waste reduction behavior, such as information intervention strategies, displaying information related to food consumption, and reducing the size of plates for some meals.
基于规范激活理论，构建了一个研究框架，以探索消费者外出就餐时减少食物浪费的行为。该框架包括行为意图和四个心理因素：后果意识（个人理解行为会产生后果）、归因责任（有责任回应）、自我效能（对自身技能和能力的信念）、个人规范（个人按照社会认可的规则行事，将减少食物浪费作为行为准则和道德义务的价值观）。通过在线调查平台共收集了来自中国不同地区的 514 个样本，并通过结构方程模型（SEM）检验了研究框架。研究发现，归因责任和自我效能可以有效地激活个人规范以减少食物浪费。个人规范和自我效能对减少食物浪费的行为意图有显著的积极影响。具体而言，自我效能对个人规范的影响最大，其次是归因责任，对减少食物浪费的行为意图的影响次之，也是个人规范。有趣的是，虽然归因责任和自我效能对个人规范有影响，但后果意识并没有显著影响个人规范以减少食物浪费，这表明情绪因素比认知因素更有可能引发促使消费者采取行动减少食物浪费的个人规范。基于研究结果，为餐厅提供了一些建议，以更有效地采取干预措施来促进减少食物浪费的行为，例如信息干预策略，展示与食物消费相关的信息，并减少某些餐食的餐盘尺寸。
