Events

Professor Kelly Haws
Anne Marie and Thomas B Walker Chair
Professor of Marketing
Owen Graduate School of Management
Vanderbilt University

ABSTRACT

Among the many trade-offs consumers navigate when making eating decisions, having to decide whether to continue eating or wasting the remaining portion is a frequent dilemma. Because these behaviors are often visible to others, they function as social signals and may be evaluated differently depending on who engages in them. In this research, we examine whether individuals are judged more harshly for wasting versus overconsuming food based on their personal characteristics. We show that the same behavior—food waste or overconsumption—elicits different social evaluations depending on the actor’s social position and body weight, with a stronger self-control signal for wasting among those higher but not lower in SES. Further, we examine how body weight affects perceptions of food behavior on socioeconomic inferences. Our findings advance understanding of food consumption as a social signal and have implications for health communication, marketing, and policy targeting food waste and consumption norms.