Reducing food waste in media age: How does social media usage affect consumers’ food waste

Abstract

The use of social media has the potential to alter consumer habits, possibly resulting in food waste. We conducted an online survey in Shanghai and obtained a dataset of 1024 responses in total. The empirical results confirmed that social media usage contributes to diminishing food waste, whereas compulsive buying may result in food waste. It was observed that materialism mediated the relationship between social media usage and compulsive buying. Compulsive buying mediates the relationship between social media usage and food waste, as well as between materialism and food waste.