Impact of Expectation on Food Waste

Abstract

This research believes culture plays a minimum role in contributing to it as we have observed similar behavior across countries. Multiple pieces of research showed that educational campaigns hardly reduce food waste. This paper aims to study individual behavior and expectations as determinants of food waste. The research question is what are the factors that lead to food waste? We designed questionnaires and distributed them to restaurant customers in both China and the United States in the form of QR codes. Then we collected a total of 152 responses and conducted an analysis on R studio. We found that the greater the difference between one's expected spending and actual spending, the more percentage of food one will likely waste. Such a pattern is also true for expected consumption and actual consumption. This result is interpreted through the lens of satisficing theory developed by Herbert Simon and anchoring by Tversky and Kahneman. We applied satisficing theory in the food industry to analyze food waste. This extends the application of the theory and provides an alternative way to interpret food waste. It shows that food waste is the result of consumers' rational utility-maximizing behavior. Additionally, the research also shows that people tend to spend more than they would have expected during a dining experience. Our research has confirmed conclusions from previous studies on consumers' awareness of consumption amount and external impacts on their behavior. More importantly, we connect those impacts with food waste percentage and obtain a model that has predictive power on food waste percentage.