Saving the world one scrap at a time: Identity labeling as as tool to reduce household food waste
type: CreativeWork
description: Food waste is a significant driver of climate change, and it threatens human and planetary health. In fact, the average American household discards between 30% - 40% of their edible food each week. Reducing food waste could divert material from landfills, where it contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. Decreasing food waste would also mean that more of the planet’s resources could contribute to feeding the population. Social psychological research demonstrates the importance of values and identity in understanding and promoting proenvironmental behaviors, such as household food use and disposal. In this dissertation, I review the social psychological literature, focusing on applications to the food waste problem. I focus on environmental identity as a predictor of proenvironmental behavior and intentions to reduce food waste. This series of studies employs labeling to impact food use behaviors and intentions. Labeling is a technique used to highlight an identity or emotion by making it salient as the underlying reason for a person’s behavior. Labeling has been applied to wildlife conservation, recycling, and donating funds. In Studies 2 and 3, I apply labels that highlight a proenvironmental or egoistic identity in a household food waste context. The current work is a partial replication of Carfora and colleagues (2017), who explored the moderating role of proenvironmental identity in an online sample of Italian participants, demonstrating the importance of proenvironmental identity in reducing food waste. This dissertation uses similar methodology in measuring proenvironmental identity, food use behaviors, and intentions to reduce food waste. Three online studies are reported about the food purchasing, use, and disposal behaviors of American households, as reported by the primary grocery shopper. In Study 1 (N = 202), participants reported their food purchase, use, and disposal practices for the previous week, as well as measures of proenvironmental identity and …
abstract: Food waste is a significant driver of climate change, and it threatens human and planetary health. In fact, the average American household discards between 30% - 40% of their edible food each week. Reducing food waste could divert material from landfills, where it contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. Decreasing food waste would also mean that more of the planet’s resources could contribute to feeding the population. Social psychological research demonstrates the importance of values and identity in understanding and promoting proenvironmental behaviors, such as household food use and disposal. In this dissertation, I review the social psychological literature, focusing on applications to the food waste problem. I focus on environmental identity as a predictor of proenvironmental behavior and intentions to reduce food waste. This series of studies employs labeling to impact food use behaviors and intentions. Labeling is a technique used to highlight an identity or emotion by making it salient as the underlying reason for a person’s behavior. Labeling has been applied to wildlife conservation, recycling, and donating funds. In Studies 2 and 3, I apply labels that highlight a proenvironmental or egoistic identity in a household food waste context. The current work is a partial replication of Carfora and colleagues (2017), who explored the moderating role of proenvironmental identity in an online sample of Italian participants, demonstrating the importance of proenvironmental identity in reducing food waste. This dissertation uses similar methodology in measuring proenvironmental identity, food use behaviors, and intentions to reduce food waste. Three online studies are reported about the food purchasing, use, and disposal behaviors of American households, as reported by the primary grocery shopper. In Study 1 (N = 202), participants reported their food purchase, use, and disposal practices for the previous week, as well as measures of proenvironmental identity and …
author: Bryant, Jamiela
keywords: identity, labeling, proenvironmental behaviors, values, Psychology
date published: 2024-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:40:49Z
provider: Claremont Graduate University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Claremont Graduate University