External or internal beauty? A study on the mechanism influencing food waste behavior

A personal norms intervention strategy is an effective way to reduce food waste behavior. However, the mechanism controlling how personal norms affect food waste behavior needs to be further investigated. In addition, previous studies have reported that weight control is part of this mechanism, but few studies have focused on how internal (personal norms) and external beauty (weight control) act simultaneously on individuals. This study constructed an analytical framework with personal norms as the independent variable, emotions as the mediating variable, and weight control as the moderating variable from a cognitive perspective. A stratified regression approach was used to analyze 835 validated questionnaires on food waste at the consumption level (outside the home) that were collected from across China. The results showed that (1) Chinese consumer personal norms about eating at restaurants and outside the home exacerbated food waste behavior; (2) consumer emotions mediated the effect of personal norms on food waste behavior; and (3) weight control moderated both paths associated with the mediating effect of emotions, and its cubic term had a more significant moderating effect. Policy recommendations are proposed based on the conclusions of this study that will effectively reduce food waste behavior.