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Ecology shapes moral judgments towards food-wasting behavior: Evidence from the Yali of West Papua, the Ngorongoro Maasai, and Poles
... So, why would food waste impact one's social status perceptions? We believe that this occurs because moral norms operate to prevent food waste (Graham-Rowe, Jessop, & Sparks, 2014, 2015Misiak, Butovskaya, & Sorokowski, 2018, so that (seeing someone) violating those norms (i.e., by wasting food) may create social repercussions. Consequently, in five studies, we find that wasting food increases one's perceived financial status, but simultaneously decreases one's social status, because wasting food signals one's inconsiderateness. ...
... In essence, in throwing away food, they indicate that they can handle throwing away some of their money. Even if it might enhance perceptions of financial status, though, wasting food could decrease ascriptions of social status, because it violates moral norms (Graham-Rowe et al., 2014, 2015Misiak et al., 2018Misiak et al., , 2020Richter & Bokelmann, 2018). ...
... Because wasting food has a moral aspect and is perceived to harm others (Graham-Rowe et al., 2014;Misiak et al., 2018;Parizeau et al., 2015), observers may develop a belief that someone who wastes food is inconsiderate and does not care about others (Misiak et al., 2020). This reasoning reflects status considerations too: observers confer social status on people who use their abilities to benefit others (Anderson, Hildreth, & Howland, 2015;Griskevicius et al., 2010). ...
... There are also records that pastoral areas are more prone to malnutrition (Loos and Zeller, 2014;Galvin et al., 2015). Climate variability, cattle diseases and unpredictable markets have been reported as important causes of food insecurity in these communities (Misiak et al., 2018). It is further noted that poverty and malnutrition, stemming from historical determinants of land access and land tenure, are compounded by deterioration of pastures and other aspects of the biophysical environment associated with integration of pastoralists into the market economy (Oiye et al., 2009;Lynn, 2010;Rufino et al., 2013). ...
... Thus, limited intake of these food groups results in negative health consequences. Misiak et al. (2018), for example, reported that Maasai children are frequently undernourished and reproductive-age women suffer from anemia because of the general scarcity of food and a lack of fruits and vegetables in their diets. Martin et al. (2014) reported that 29% of reproductive-age women of the NCA suffered from anemia. ...
... Second, an increase in probabilities from Q2 to higher quartiles with livestock units suggests increased income from livestock sales which possibly enabled households to purchase more food varieties. In this regard, however, small stocks are known to be more convenient for sale or consumption at household level (Misiak et al., 2018). Although cattle are considered an index of social status, its meat is rarely eaten (Smith, 2016). ...
... Food wasting is linked to morality across cultures (e.g., Poland, Indonesia, Tanzania) (Misiak et al., 2018). Nonetheless, the majority of studies exploring attitudes toward food wasting behavior were conducted in industrialized countries (for a review of the studies on food wasting behavior in developing countries see: Aschemann-Witzel et al., 2018). ...
... Moral norms regarding food wasting behavior may vary among different populations. Misiak et al. (2018) demonstrated that traditional populations (i.e., pastoralists, horticulturalists), where food acquisition is more difficult and complicated than in western industrialized societies, may hold harsher moral norms toward food wasting behavior. They hypothesized that moral norms toward food wasting behavior might serve as a cultural adaptation to harsh environments, restricting people from wasting food. ...
... This additional list of reasons may be explored in future studies on moral judgments of food wasting behaviors. Human populations vary in their judgments toward food wasting behavior (Misiak et al., 2018), and therefore different populations may have different reasons to regard food wasting behavior immoral. Finally, externally-oriented reasons explained only about around 3% of variance in the results of the frequency of food wasting behavior. ...
Purpose
People consider food wasting behavior to be immoral. However, it is not clear whether people who consider food wasting behavior immoral waste less food. Building on previous qualitative studies, we conducted a large-sample quantitative study. We examined whether people who consider food wasting behavior immoral display food wasting behaviors less frequently and whether they waste less food in general. Furthermore, we explored the reasons that make people consider food wasting behavior immoral and whether they affected food wasting.
Design/methodology/approach
Participants voluntarily ( n = 562) completed a set of questionnaires that measured the frequency of their food wasting behavior, the amount of food wasted in the preceding week, and food wasting moral judgments, including scales, which explored the reasons for judging this behavior as immoral.
Findings
We found that people who regard food wasting behavior as immoral displayed food wasting behavior less frequently, but did not waste less food than people who did not consider food wasting behavior immoral. Furthermore, we found that there are two categories of reasons for moral disapproval of food wasting behavior: externally oriented (concern for the environment, social issues, and for future generations) and internally oriented (concern for ones’ financial situation, social approval, and going by traditional norms). However, only people whose moral judgments were motivated by externally oriented reasons wasted food less frequently.
Originality/value
Our findings provide evidence that moral judgments influence food wasting behavior and highlight the importance of the content of moral beliefs for predicting behaviors.
... People morally condemn food wasting behaviour Misiak et al., 2018). Our moral reasoning is rooted in affective psychological processes, partly shaped by cultural learning (Greene & Haidt, 2002). ...
... Yet, food wasting behaviour is morally condemned among the people for whom this knowledge is not easily available. Misiak, Butovskaya and Sorokowski (2018) showed the least concern about wasting food. ...
... However, the knowledge in the area of attitudes towards food wasting is rather scarce, especially for children. Several studies in adults indicated that people judge food wasting as morally wrong (Graham-Rowe, Jessop, & Sparks, 2015;Misiak, Butovskaya, & Sorokowski, 2018). This observation is important, because existing research indicates that referring to moral judgment can be an effective tool to motivate behavior change (Amin et al., 2017;Markowitz & Shariff, 2012;Wolsko, Ariceaga, & Seiden, 2016). ...
... Previous studies investigating foundations of negative perception of food-wasting showed that people find this behavior to be morally wrong (Graham-Rowe et al., 2015;Marczak et al., 2019;Misiak et al., 2018). It is possible that this belief is not inherent, but that it emerges in Fig. 2. Sharing food versus sharing pens with the person who wasted food. ...
Food loss and food waste extensively contribute to environmental degradation. Crucially, children waste large quantities of food and more research is required to better understand this problem and consequently to reduce food waste in the youngest generation. Here, we examined affective and behavioral components of attitudes towards food-wasting in a group of 670 children and 123 adults, aged 3–28. The participants viewed food wasting and food saving in a video, and we tested whether age affected the moral-emotional and behavioral reactions to a food wasting vs. food saving person. The attitude towards the food wasting protagonist (operationalized as “liking” indicated on a pictorial scale) was significantly more negative than that towards the food saving protagonist in all age groups except for the three to five-year old children. Behavioral attitude towards the video protagonists was defined as a willingness to share some goods with a food wasting vs. a food saving person, and in our study, food wasting protagonist received equal amount or less resources distributed by the participants. Additionally, our data suggest that food wasting preferentially affected food sharing in adults, but not in children, as food was shared with the food wasting protagonist in significantly smaller quantities than pens by the oldest age group. In summary, we show that even preschoolers disapprove of food wasting behavior, but only in 6–7 year old children this attitude begins to become well established, it consolidates at the age of 8–9 and starts to include a behavioral component at the age of 10–12. We suggest that pro-environmental interventions targeting waste reduction in children should start at middle childhood and focus on behavior.
... Despite the results obtained in our research, additional factors have been observed in the literature which were not mentioned by our interviewees (e.g. Diaz-Ruiz, Costa-Font, & Gil, 2018;Mirosa et al., 2016;Misiak, Butovskaya, & Sorokowski, 2018). ...
... Due to the fact that only four school canteens in Barcelona took part of our research, and despite the number of participating pupils (2,991) and audited trays (10,031) was considerable, our results could be biased by sociological characteristics (like wealth or education) of families that send their children to these particular schools or even geographical characteristics as all the participating schools were based in Barcelona. Researchers have found relevant cultural differences in moral judgements on food wasting (Misiak et al., 2018). ...
Food Waste is a global significant issue for ethical, environmental and economic reasons, while its management is difficult due to its frequent low visibility. Individual choices and preferences are closely related to the generation of food waste although likely to be modified through education and awareness campaigns. In particular, school canteens are big generators of food waste and, at the same time, provide a great opportunity to improve habits regarding nutrition and education on sustainability, thus impacting the future of the food system. The end purpose of this research is identifying the causes of food waste and unveiling best practices towards its reduction. To achieve this goal, we have designed and developed a mixed methods research approach including semi-structured interviews with managers and staff in schools and catering firms and waste audits at four school canteens - measuring waste from over 10,000 pupil's trays. In order to avoid potential bias due to meal preference, the audit lasted three to five consecutive weekdays per school, thus comprising different menus. We estimated overall food waste between 60 and 100 g per pupil per day. Plate waste represented the highest source of waste, although a big disparity was found among the schools based on their different educational perspectives. Key food waste determinants found were: first, top management standpoint towards food waste and sustainability in general. Secondly, we observed relevant differences among the three catering business models studied, regarding the stages where food waste is usually produced. Finally, food waste was also impacted by the diverse resource availability among the schools. Despite this, the human factor arose as the most relevant one when aiming to minimise food waste.
... Research shows that consumers from different backgrounds vary in moral judgments about factors influencing food waste (Misiak et al. 2020). For example, the study by Misiak et al. (2018) indicates that compared to affluent individuals, traditional communities such as pastoralists and horticulturists, who face greater challenges in obtaining food, hold more stringent moral norms regarding food waste. Thus, it is evident that psychological factors influenced by different cultural backgrounds affect behavior and intentions (Ajzen,1991;Misiak et al. 2020). ...
Discarding excessive amounts of food that is nearing expiry is a predominant contributor to food waste, leading to substantial economic losses and environmental pollution. To examine the impact of packaging design features on consumer inclinations to buy nearly expired products, this study proposed a research model based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Survey data was obtained from 426 consumers using questionnaires. An analysis of their responses based on structural equation modeling showed the following: (1) perceived behavioral control emerges as the primary driver, directly influencing consumer purchasing intentions, with health consciousness, moral norms, and expiry date-based pricing (EDBP) following as additional influential factors; (2) the visual elements of packaging design are highly important, as they exert a significant positive impact on consumers’ perceived behavioral control; (3) trust in the label exerts a notable influence on the perceived value of nearly expired food products; (4) customer purchase intentions for food items nearing expiry were not significantly affected by verbal elements, attitudes, subjective norms, or perceived value. Based on the findings, strategies to improve the design and marketing of packaging for nearly expired foods are discussed.
... It is particularly important to acknowledge the limitations of the cultural scope. Research has already identified that people from different cultures make different moral decisions (Misiak et al., 2018;Sorokowski et al., 2020;Turpin et al., 2021), and there is increasing awareness of the limitations of WEIRD samples in psychology (Henrich et al., 2010;Nielsen et al., 2017), also for the impact of culture on caring about animals (Małecki et al., 2020). Thus, we can expect that moral judgments about animals may also vary as a function of culture, especially between WEIRD and non-WEIRD countries. ...
Recent psychological research finds that U.S. American children have a weaker tendency than U.S. American adults to value humans more than animals. We aimed to conceptually replicate and extend this finding in a preregistered study ( N = 412). We investigated whether 6- to 9-year-old Polish children (Study 1a) are less likely to prioritize humans over animals than Polish adults are (Studies 1b and 1c). We presented participants with moral dilemmas where they had to prioritize either humans or animals (dogs or chimpanzees) in situations that involved harming (i.e., a trolley problem) or benefiting (i.e., giving a snack). We found that Polish children prioritized humans over animals less than Polish adults did. This was the case both in dilemmas that involved preventing harm and in dilemmas that involved providing snacks. Both children and adults prioritized humans over chimpanzees more than humans over dogs.
... In some destinations, like Cape Town, the Day Zero drought led to a loss of tourism arrivals, revenue, and jobs (Drummond, 2019;van Staden, 2020). Other destinations that are feared to suffer the worst impacts of water shortages in the future include Morocco (Tekken & Kropp, 2015), Egypt (El-Masry et al., 2022;Ragab & Meis, 2016;Refaat, 2015), and the Ngorongoro National Park in Tanzania (Manono, 2015;Misiak et al., 2018;Mkiramweni et al., 2016). ...
Informing Africa's tourism sector responses to the IPCC-AR6's projected climate change impacts remains paramount. This study reviews the evolution of knowledge on climate change and tourism in Africa, examining gaps, scholarship trends and policy issues since the IPCC-AR5 in 2014. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guideline is used to gather and synthesise the relevant literature. The study observed increased tourism climate change risks, including higher temperatures, more severe droughts and floods, sea level rise, snow melting, coral bleaching and more frequent tropical cyclones. While knowledge of the impacts of climate change on tourism has increased, critical sector gaps remain in some regions and thematic areas. The study, therefore, makes a modest contribution to the literature on tourism and climate change in Africa.
... Moral motivations relate to concerns about and feelings of guilt towards people that do not have sufficient access to food. As food is essential for human survival, wasting it has something inherently immoral about it (Misiak et al., 2018(Misiak et al., , 2020. People often spontaneously mention moral concern as an important driver of their intention to reduce their food waste in qualitative studies (Graham-Rowe et al., 2014;van Geffen et al., 2020). ...
Food waste is one of society’s biggest problems, with huge ecological, economic and social consequences. Hence, there is a necessity to derive a better insight in how consumers can be triggered to avoid food waste. Although it is generally known that motivations are important drivers of human behavior, limited attention has been paid to motivations in the food waste context and no viable measurement instrument exists that systematically takes into account the different motivations underlying the avoidance of food waste. Current scales related to food waste concern encompass attitude and awareness items only. The current paper aims to fill this gap and develops a 21-item motivation to avoid food waste (MAFW) scale. Since consumers may be driven by different motivations to avoid food waste, special attention is paid to the multidimensionality of food waste avoidance motivations. Specifically, the MAFW-scale consists of four motivations: environmental, moral, financial and social motivations. Three studies demonstrate the scale’s internal reliability, test-retest reliability, nomological validity, and predictive validity. The MAFW-scale fosters research into the genesis of consumers’ food waste behaviors, and can serve as a tool to segment and target (un)motivated consumers.
... Moreover, it is considered inappropriate to finish all the food on one's plate in Abu Dhabi [74,77]. In terms of moral judgments, the Masai think food wasting is more immoral than the Yali and the Poles [78]. Second, cultural contexts shape eating habits [15]. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic threatens global food security and has created an urgent need for food conservation. This article presents a review of clean plate campaigns around the world. It aims to fight food waste and reveal the factors that may influence food waste. The Clean Plate Club in the US developed during wartime and relied heavily on political power for compliance, whereas the Clean Plate movement in South Korea was based on religion. China’s Clean Your Plate Campaign (CYPC) has gone through two stages: CYPC I and CYPC II. The latter occurred during the unstable period of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was large-scale and more strongly enforced than CYPC I. In China, CYPC has relied more on personal virtue than on politics or religion. Culture, policy, COVID-19, and behavior are all important social factors that influence food waste. Specifically, two cultural values are drivers of food waste in China: hospitality and face-saving (mianzi). In terms of policy, China's food waste law mainly relies on persuasion; it lacks any power of enforcement. Laws in France and Italy, by contrast, focus on re-using food and involve both coercion and incentives. COVID-19 may have led to panic purchasing and stockpiling, but, in general, it has resulted in a reduction in food waste.
... Such an exploration makes several major contributions. First, wasting behavior is an emerging problem in economics and public policy [16,17]. The present research offers a novel perspective on this subject by identifying stress (i.e., a negative psychological state) as an antecedent of individuals' wasting behavior. ...
Wasting behavior has become a serious issue in modern society, especially when individuals face economic recessions and environmental problems. Despite the literature exploring cultural and sociological antecedents of wasting behavior, limited attention has been given to the role of individuals’ associated psychological states. The present research fills this gap by examining how and why stress, a psychological state pervasive among people in the modern world, can influence individuals’ wasting behavior through three studies. Pilot study and Study 1 provide evidence of the positive relationship between stress and wasting behavior. Then, Study 2 sheds light on the mechanism underlying the proposed effect by taking impaired self-control as a mediator. Lastly, the theoretical contributions and practical implications of this research are discussed.
... These findings are not surprising, as it is hard to plan one's meals if the access to food is limited or unpredictable. Previous studies already argued that food insecurity influences food wasting behaviour-however, the prediction was that higher levels of food insecurity decrease the levels of food waste (Misiak et al., 2018). As less frequent meal planning is associated with increased wastage, the results of our study seemingly contradict this prediction. ...
Measuring food wasting behaviour at the consumer level is challenging. Most existing methods focus on food wasting at the household level, which in turn limits the possibility to study the situational and individual factors shaping food wasting behaviour in a single person. To fill this gap, we conducted a series of pre-registered studies in which we developed the Food Wasting Behaviours Questionnaire (FWBQ), an inexpensive method suitable for assessing and monitoring food wasting behaviour at the single-person level. We found that a wide range of behaviours associated with food wasting could be narrowed down to five distinctive basic categories: (1) discarding food because of its’ unpalatability; (2) preventing food waste through buying only the necessities; (3) preventing food waste through planning meals and groceries; (4) preventing food waste through sharing food with others; and (5) preventing food waste through feeding animals. The FWBQ allowed us to investigate the socio-economic factors that influence food wasting behaviour, such as food insecurity. Furthermore, because we started our research programme before the pandemic, we were able to conduct a natural experiment and observe that people changed their food wasting behaviour during the pandemic. Finally, we found that FWBQ allowed for predicting the amount of wasted meat, dairy and bakery products. In summary, we have demonstrated the potential utility of the FWBQ, an inexpensive and easy-to-use method for predicting the factors and antecedents of food wasting behaviour.
... Hence, the perceived negative emotions in the wake of reading food-514 wasting scenarios confirm that, in people's view, it is indeed wrong to throw away food. Our 515 results are consistent with other studies suggesting that food-wasting is perceived as a moral 516 problem ( Graham-Rowe et al., 2015;Misiak et al., 2018) and expands this conclusion to an 517 industrialized and developed population. As mentioned before, Misiak and colleagues (2018) 518 hypothesized that moral judgments about food-wasting may serve as an adaptation to harsh 519 All rights reserved. ...
Food-wasting has a profound negative social and environmental impact. Acknowledging that referring to moral judgment can motivate behavior change, the present study aimed to determine moral intuitions underlying the perception of food-wasting behavior. We developed a set of affective standardized scenarios and we used them to collect behavioral and neuroimaging data. In the main study, 50 participants made moral judgments regarding food-wasting, disgusting, harmful, dishonest, or neutral behaviors presented in these scenarios. We found that wasting food was considered morally wrong and it was associated with moral disgust. Neuroimaging data revealed that food-wasting stimuli elicited an increased activity in structures associated with moral judgment, as well as in regions involved in the processing of moral, but also physical disgust. We discuss our results in the context of the evolutionary significance of food that might have led to seeing food-wasting as a moral transgression.
... Not only did hunter-gatherers develop cultural adaptations that minimize food wasting, but recent study (Misiak et al. 2018) reported that two traditional populationsthe Maasai from Tanzania (Endulen) and the Yali from West Papuadeveloped strong moral disapproval for food wasting. It serves as a cultural adaptation that motivates individuals to not waste the surplus of food. ...
In this commentary, we discuss how the “incentive hope” hypothesis explains differences in food-wasting behaviors among humans. We stress that the role of relevant ecological characteristics should be taken into consideration together with the incentive hope hypothesis: population mobility, animal domestication, and food-wasting visibility.
... Not only did hunter-gatherers develop cultural adaptations that minimize food wasting, but recent study (Misiak et al. 2018) reported that two traditional populationsthe Maasai from Tanzania (Endulen) and the Yali from West Papuadeveloped strong moral disapproval for food wasting. It serves as a cultural adaptation that motivates individuals to not waste the surplus of food. ...
Information seeking, especially when motivated by strategic learning and intrinsic curiosity, could render the new mechanism “incentive hope” proposed by Anselme & Güntürkün sufficient, but not necessary to explain how reward uncertainty promotes reward seeking and consumption. Naturalistic and foraging-like tasks can help parse motivational processes that bridge learning and foraging behaviors and identify their neural underpinnings.
... Not only did hunter-gatherers develop cultural adaptations that minimize food wasting, but recent study (Misiak et al. 2018) reported that two traditional populationsthe Maasai from Tanzania (Endulen) and the Yali from West Papuadeveloped strong moral disapproval for food wasting. It serves as a cultural adaptation that motivates individuals to not waste the surplus of food. ...
Our target article proposes that a new concept – incentive hope – is necessary in the behavioral sciences to explain animal foraging under harsh environmental conditions. Incentive hope refers to a specific motivational mechanism in the brain – considered only in mammals and birds. But it can also be understood at a functional level, as an adaptive behavioral strategy that contributes to improve survival. Thus, this concept is an attempt to bridge across different research fields such as behavioral psychology, reward neuroscience, and behavioral ecology. Many commentaries suggest that incentive hope even could help understand phenomena beyond these research fields, including food wasting and food sharing, mental energy conservation, diverse psychopathologies, irrational decisions in invertebrates, and some aspects of evolution by means of sexual selection. We are favorable to such extensions because incentive hope denotes an unconscious process capable of working against many forms of adversity; organisms do not need to hope as a subjective feeling, but to behave as if they had this feeling. In our response, we carefully discuss each suggestion and criticism and reiterate the importance of having a theory accounting for motivation under reward uncertainty.
... Not only did hunter-gatherers develop cultural adaptations that minimize food wasting, but recent study (Misiak et al. 2018) reported that two traditional populationsthe Maasai from Tanzania (Endulen) and the Yali from West Papuadeveloped strong moral disapproval for food wasting. It serves as a cultural adaptation that motivates individuals to not waste the surplus of food. ...
Poverty-related food insecurity can be viewed as a form of economic and nutritional uncertainty that can lead, in some situations, to a desire for more filling and satisfying food. Given the current obesogenic food environment and the nature of the food supply, those food choices could engage a combination of sensory, neurophysiological, and genetic factors as potential determinants of obesity.
... Not only did hunter-gatherers develop cultural adaptations that minimize food wasting, but recent study (Misiak et al. 2018) reported that two traditional populationsthe Maasai from Tanzania (Endulen) and the Yali from West Papuadeveloped strong moral disapproval for food wasting. It serves as a cultural adaptation that motivates individuals to not waste the surplus of food. ...
Poverty-related food insecurity can be viewed as a form of economic and nutritional
uncertainty, that can lead, in some situations, to a desire for more filling and satisfying
food. Given the current obesogenic food environment and the nature of the food supply,
those food choices could engage a combination of sensory, neurophysiological and
genetic factors as potential determinants of obesity.
... Not only did hunter-gatherers develop cultural adaptations that minimize food wasting, but recent study (Misiak et al. 2018) reported that two traditional populationsthe Maasai from Tanzania (Endulen) and the Yali from West Papuadeveloped strong moral disapproval for food wasting. It serves as a cultural adaptation that motivates individuals to not waste the surplus of food. ...
Food uncertainty has the effect of invigorating food-related responses. Psychologists have noted that mammals and birds respond more to a conditioned stimulus that unreliably predicts food delivery, and ecologists have shown that animals (especially small passerines) consume and/or hoard more food and can get fatter when access to that resource is unpredictable. Are these phenomena related? We think they are. Psychologists have proposed several mechanistic interpretations, while ecologists have suggested a functional interpretation: the effect of unpredictability on fat reserves and hoarding behavior is an evolutionary strategy acting against the risk of starvation when food is in short supply. Both perspectives are complementary, and we argue that the psychology of incentive motivational processes can shed some light on the causal mechanisms leading animals to seek and consume more food under uncertainty in the wild. Our theoretical approach is in agreement with neuroscientific data relating to the role of dopamine, a neurotransmitter strongly involved in incentive motivation, and its plausibility has received some explanatory and predictive value with respect to Pavlovian phenomena. Overall, we argue that the occasional and unavoidable absence of food rewards has motivational effects (called incentive hope) that facilitate foraging effort. It is shown that this hypothesis is computationally tenable, leading foragers in an unpredictable environment to consume more food items and to have higher long-term energy storage than foragers in a predictable environment.
This study explores Gen Z diners’ perceptions of restaurant food waste generation and prevention, as well as their related moral decision-making. Drawing on the norm activation model and moral disengagement theory, a dual-route process model was developed to depict Gen Zers’ the moral judgement for wasting food or not at restaurants. Six online focus groups with Gen Z diners in the United States were conducted and thematic analysis was applied. The findings of this study identified multiple underlying psychological mechanisms (e.g., moral obligation activation vs. moral disengagement) for explaining Gen Z diners’ food waste behaviors. Situational factors, cultural factors, and restaurant-related factors all play a key role in the moral judgment process. The findings also revealed what Gen Z diners expect restaurants to do in order to address the food waste problem. This study provides valuable theoretical and managerial implications for tackling the food waste issue. The practical contribution of this study supports the restaurant industry to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goal 12 “Responsible Consumption and Production”.
Este estudio presenta un análisis bibliométrico de las investigaciones más relevantes a nivel mundial respecto de trabajos mancomunados e interdisciplinarios realizados por diferentes campos científicos en aras del cuidado del medioambiente. El objetivo de este trabajo es presentar un modelo integrativo para conductas proambientales. Se usaron los programas The Critical Appraisals Skills Programme – CASP y The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology – STROBE, para la selección de los datos y para el análisis comparativo de la información. Se hizo una matriz de datos en la que se consignaron 413,307 títulos de artículos científicos dedicados al estudio de prácticas proambientales, de los cuales, tras un riguroso procedimiento se seleccionaron 35 manuscritos que cumplían con todos los criterios de esta investigación. Sugerimos que existan puntos de encuentro entre la ingeniería ambiental y la psicología ecológica y ambiental, dado que estos trabajos conjuntos podrían ayudar a generar mejores propuestas proambientales.
Research on moral judgment has been dominated by rationalist models, in which moral judgment is thought to be caused by moral reasoning. The author gives 4 reasons for considering the hypothesis that moral reasoning does not cause moral judgment; rather, moral reasoning is usually a post hoc construction, generated after a judgment has been reached. The social intuitionist model is presented as an alternative to rationalist models. The model is a social model in that it deemphasizes the private reasoning done by individuals and emphasizes instead the importance of social and cultural influences. The model is an intuitionist model in that it states that moral judgment is generally the result of quick, automatic evaluations (intuitions). The model is more consistent than rationalist models with recent findings in social, cultural, evolutionary, and biological psychology, as well as in anthropology and primatology.
People who are more avoidant of pathogens are more politically conservative, as are nations with greater parasite stress. In the current research, we test two prominent hypotheses that have been proposed as explanations for these relationships. The first, which is an intragroup account, holds that these relationships between pathogens and politics are based on motivations to adhere to local norms, which are sometimes shaped by cultural evolution to have pathogen-neutralizing properties. The second, which is an intergroup account, holds that these same relationships are based on motivations to avoid contact with outgroups, who might pose greater infectious disease threats than ingroup members. Results from a study surveying 11,501 participants across 30 nations are more consistent with the intragroup account than with the intergroup account. National parasite stress relates to traditionalism (an aspect of conservatism especially related to adherence to group norms) but not to social
dominance orientation (SDO; an aspect of conservatism especially related to endorsements of intergroup barriers and negativity toward ethnic and racial outgroups). Further, individual differences in pathogen-avoidance motives (i.e., disgust sensitivity) relate more strongly to traditionalism than to SDO within the 30 nations.
Cultural anthropologists often use household-level interviews to understand components of land-use patterns and their effects upon human welfare. These results are extrapolated to some broader areas, usually without description. We present a method to make this extrapolation more rigorous. Evidence suggests that high precipitation in 1997/1998, associated with El Nino/Southern Oscillation, affected livestock belonging to the Maasai differently in two regions of northern Tanzania. We used cluster analysis of vegetation biomass, as represented by Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometry-based Normalized Difference Vegetation Indices, to divide the region into hierarchically related, non-overlapping regions. These regions were used to generalize household interviews, where possible. When the difference in small livestock sold from 1997 to 1998 was generalized, we found that the Maasai in the Ngorongoro region sold many more animals (e.g., 10 to 17) during the dry 1997 year than those in Loliondo region (e.g., 0 to 5). During the wet 1998 year, the Maasai at higher elevations of both Ngorongoro and Loliondo sold more animals than those at lower elevations.
Recent studies show that current trends in yield improvement will not be su cientto meet projected global food demand in 2050, and suggest that a further expansion of agricultural area will be required. However, agriculture is the main driver of losses of biodiversity and a major contributor to climate change and pollution, and so further expansion is undesirable. The usual proposed alternative-intensification with increased resource use-also has negative effects. It is therefore imperative to find ways to achieve global food security without expanding crop or pastureland and without increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Some authors have emphasized a role for sustainable intensification in closing global 'yield gaps' between the currently realized and potentially achievable yields. However, in this paper we use a transparent, data-driven model, to show that even if yield gaps are closed, the projected demand will drive further agricultural expansion. There are, however, options for reduction on the demand side that are rarely considered. In the second part of this paper we quantify the potential for demand-side mitigation options, and show that improved diets and decreases in food waste are essential to deliver emissions reductions, and to provide global food security in 2050.
Research on the emotional, cognitive, and social determinants of moral judgment has surged in recent years. The development of moral foundations theory (MFT) has played an important role, demonstrating the breadth of morality. Moral psychology has responded by investigating how different domains of moral judgment are shaped by a variety of psychological factors. Yet, the discipline lacks a validated set of moral violations that span the moral domain, creating a barrier to investigating influences on judgment and how their neural bases might vary across the moral domain. In this paper, we aim to fill this gap by developing and validating a large set of moral foundations vignettes (MFVs). Each vignette depicts a behavior violating a particular moral foundation and not others. The vignettes are controlled on many dimensions including syntactic structure and complexity making them suitable for neuroimaging research. We demonstrate the validity of our vignettes by examining respondents' classifications of moral violations, conducting exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and demonstrating the correspondence between the extracted factors and existing measures of the moral foundations. We expect that the MFVs will be beneficial for a wide variety of behavioral and neuroimaging investigations of moral cognition.
Background:
It was previously reported that the prevalence of oral thrush among Maasai women of reproductive age
was disproportionately high in the absence of established predisposing factors such as HIV/AIDS, syphilis, diabetes and anaemia.
This study investigated whether incidence of oral thrush was due to low serum micronutrients levels.
Results showed that all study participants were deficient in Vitamin s A and C; some had insufficient levels of
Vitamin D. We set out to understand the normal dietary intake of Maasai women of reproductive age and their traditions associated with food intake. Our aim was to review the types of foods and amounts consumed in relation to potentials for oral thrush occurrence.
Methods:
Interviews were conducted using a structured questionnaire; the information collected included data on age, parity, pregnancy status, weight, height, frequently eaten foods, number of meals, and food restrictions.
Clinicians also examined participants for presence/absence of oral thrush lesions. A twenty four hour dietary recall was conducted, focusing on macro and micro nutrient content of the food consumed using the Tanzania Food Composition Table and computed with Excel™ 2007 software.
Results:
The twenty four hour dietary recall assessment revealed that the most frequently eaten food (71%) was
thin porridge made from maize flour. Carbohydrates contributed the most energy (approximately 80%), followed by fats (12%), and protein (8%).
Student’s t-test showed no significant difference in dietary intake of carbohydrates and protein between women with and without oral thrush (with p >0.05). However, all groups showed low intake of protein,
carbohydrates, fats and micronutrients such as vitamins A, C, B12, folate, and iron.
This paper examines what is needed to transform nature tourism to protected areas into ecotourism, having genuine social benefits and serving as a tool for sustainable community development. It draws on the case of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania's most visited protected area, and a multiple land use zone inhabited by the pastoral Maasai peoples. I argue that for ecotourism to promote sustainable development in communities that are its supposed beneficiaries, three fundamental conditions must be met. First, opportunities to capture the economic benefits of tourism must be structured in a way that is culturally appropriate, and therefore accessible to the target population. Second, for communities to benefit from ecotourism, they need secure land tenure over the area in which it takes place, as well as the ability to make land use decisions for that area. Third, tourism benefits to local communities must be more than economic; they must promote deeper social and political justice goals that, if left unaddressed, restrict peoples' ability to enjoy the economic benefits of tourism. Without these elements, the conservation outcomes of ecotourism are likely to be less favorable.
This paper addresses the close relationship between moral discourse and the practices of consumption. I suggest that moralizing about consumption is itself a phenomenon worthy of study. Further, there are a number of reasons why consumption itself inevitably raises moral issues in every culture. Finally, given urgent environmental problems, we should not seek to separate discussions of consumption from fundamental problems of justice and the common good.
Food systems contribute 19%–29% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, releasing 9,800–16,900 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) in 2008. Agricultural production, including indirect emissions associated with land-cover change, contributes 80%–86% of total food system emissions, with significant regional variation. The impacts of global climate change on food systems are expected to be widespread, complex, geographically and temporally variable, and profoundly influenced by socioeconomic conditions. Historical statistical studies and integrated assessment models provide evidence that climate change will affect agricultural yields and earnings, food prices, reliability of delivery, food quality, and, notably, food safety. Low-income producers and consumers of food will be more vulnerable to climate change owing to their comparatively limited ability to invest in adaptive institutions and technologies under increasing climatic risks. Some synergies among food security, adaptati...
This review covers two major causes of change in pastoral systems. First is fragmentation, the dissection of a natural system into spatially isolated parts, which is caused by a number of socioeconomic factors such as changes in land tenure, agriculture, sedentarization, and institutions. Second is climate change and climate variability, which are expected to alter dry and semiarid grasslands now and into the future. Details of these changes are described using examples from Africa and Mongolia. An adaptation framework is used to place global change in context. Although pastoral systems are clearly under numerous constraints and risks have intensified, pastoralists are adapting and trying to remain flexible. It is too early to ask if the responses are enough, given the magnitude and number of changes faced by pastoralists today.
Drawing on 14 months of in-depth ethnographic research, this paper explores the difficulties and barriers that Swedish citizen-consumers face in their attempts to reduce their environmental and social impacts. The research reveals that while many find it quite easy to turn off their lights, ride their bike to work, or buy organic apples, generalized anti-consumption proves to be much more difficult – even for the aware, interested, and committed men and women participating in this research. Contrary to the contemporary dominance of theories which link sustainable action to awareness, I argue that in the Swedish context the most significant barrier is not lack of information but rather concerns with conformity, equality, and fairness – suggesting that efforts to encourage sustainable living depend not only on appeals to reflexive and rational consumers or the promise of alternative identities, but also on structural changes that require political and industrial leadership. The research, therefore, raises questions about the effectiveness of neoliberal environmental governance and the contemporary focus on consumer responsibility in sustainability policy.
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Over the past several decades, we have argued that cultural evolution can facilitate the evolution of large-scale cooperation because it often leads to more rapid adaptation than genetic evolution, and, when multiple stable equilibria exist, rapid adaptation leads to variation among groups. Recently, Lehmann, Feldman, and colleagues have published several papers questioning this argument. They analyze models showing that cultural evolution can actually reduce the range of conditions under which cooperation can evolve and interpret these models as indicating that we were wrong to conclude that culture facilitated the evolution of human cooperation. In the main, their models assume that rates of cultural adaption are not strong enough compared to migration to maintain persistent variation among groups when payoffs create multiple stable equilibria. We show that Lehmann et al. reach different conclusions because they have made different assumptions. We argue that the assumptions that underlie our models are more consistent with the empirical data on large-scale cultural variation in humans than those of Lehmann et al., and thus, our models provide a more plausible account of the cultural evolution of human cooperation in large groups.
Electronic supplementary material
The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00265-010-1100-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Food waste in the global food supply chain is reviewed in relation to the prospects for feeding a population of nine billion by 2050. Different definitions of food waste with respect to the complexities of food supply chains (FSCs)are discussed. An international literature review found a dearth of data on food waste and estimates varied widely; those for post-harvest losses of grain in developing countries might be overestimated. As much of the post-harvest loss data for developing countries was collected over 30 years ago, current global losses cannot be quantified. A significant gap exists in the understanding of the food waste implications of the rapid development of 'BRIC' economies. The limited data suggest that losses are much higher at the immediate post-harvest stages in developing countries and higher for perishable foods across industrialized and developing economies alike. For affluent economies, post-consumer food waste accounts for the greatest overall losses. To supplement the fragmentary picture and to gain a forward view, interviews were conducted with international FSC experts. The analyses highlighted the scale of the problem, the scope for improved system efficiencies and the challenges of affecting behavioural change to reduce post-consumer waste in affluent populations.
The roles that individuals can adopt, or get assigned, in processes of global environmental change, can be analyzed with the help of three ideal-type forms of commitment: as environmental citizens, as political consumers, and as individual moral agents. We offer a discussion of the three roles in the context of sustainability changes in everyday life practices of consumption. Sociological accounts of (sustainability) transitions are discussed with respect to their treatment of the concept of agency vis à vis the objects, technologies, and infrastructures implied in globalizing consumption practices. Using consumption practices as basic units of analysis helps to avoid individualist and privatized accounts of the role of citizen-consumers in environmental change, while making possible a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between the personal and the planetary in the process of greening everyday life consumption.
Since the early 1990s, Maasai men living in the Simanjiro district of northern Tanzania have worked as middlemen, buying and selling gemstones at Mererani, the only place in the world where the gemstone tanzanite is mined. While some men have struggled to make it, others have been quite lucrative in this booming mineral trade by gaining access to various forms of capital. In addition, regardless of an individual's success, as a group, tanzanite traders are seen by others in their home villages to possess new forms of capital that carry societal value because they map onto current ideas about success and what it means to “be Maasai”. Through an ethnographic exploration of Maasai gemstone traders in northern Tanzania, this article sheds light on an overlooked sector of the mining commodity chain and examines the economic, social, and cultural forms of capital tanzanite traders possess, mobilize, and are perceived to embody. Moreover, it examines the implications for these new forms of capital in terms of social relations and power structures and argues that capital accumulation and livelihood change is expressed through a unique cultural style with important implications for power relations in Maasai households and communities.
We review contemporary work on cultural factors affecting moral judgments and values, and those affecting moral behaviors. In both cases, we highlight examples of within-societal cultural differences in morality, to show that these can be as substantial and important as cross-societal differences. Whether between or within nations and societies, cultures vary substantially in their promotion and transmission of a multitude of moral judgments and behaviors. Cultural factors contributing to this variation include religion, social ecology (weather, crop conditions, population density, pathogen prevalence, residential mobility), and regulatory social institutions such as kinship structures and economic markets. This variability raises questions for normative theories of morality, but also holds promise for future descriptive work on moral thought and behavior.
This book develops and tests an ecological and evolutionary theory of the causes of human values-the core beliefs that guide people's cognition and behavior-and their variation across time and space around the world. We call this theory the parasite-stress theory of values or the parasite-stress theory of sociality. The evidence we present in our book indicates that both a wide span of human affairs and major aspects of human cultural diversity can be understood in light of variable parasite (infectious disease) stress and the range of value systems evoked by variable parasite stress. The same evidence supports the hypothesis that people have psychological adaptations that function to adopt values dependent upon local infectious-disease adversity. The authors have identified key variables, variation in infectious disease adversity and in the core values it evokes, for understanding these topics and in novel and encompassing ways. Although the human species is the focus in the book, evidence presented in the book shows that the parasite-stress theory of sociality informs other topics in ecology and evolutionary biology such as variable family organization and speciation processes and biological diversity in general in non-human animals. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014. All rights are reserved.
Identifying the antecedents of household food waste reduction is an important step in the development of effective and efficient interventions. This prospective study tested the utility of applying an extended theory of planned behaviour (TPB) model to household food waste reduction. At baseline, participants (N = 279) completed a questionnaire designed to measure the following cognitive constructs derived from the extended TPB model: intention, attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control, self-identity, anticipated regret, moral norm and descriptive norm. At follow-up, participants (N = 204) completed a questionnaire assessing their household food waste behaviour. The extended TPB model accounted for a substantial amount (64%) of the variance in intention, with attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control, self-identity and anticipated regret emerging as significant linear predictors. Furthermore intention significantly predicted the likelihood that participants had reduced their household fruit and vegetable waste at follow-up; however, the amount of variance in behaviour accounted for by the TPB model was relatively small (5%). Results demonstrate the utility of applying an extended theory of planned behaviour model to predict motivation and – to a lesser extent – behaviour, in the context of household fruit and vegetable waste reduction.
New evidence for environmental change and human impact from the floor of the Baliem Valley, at 1420 m altitude, is presented along with previous evidence from the Highlands of New Guinea. The valley is largely cleared and an initial date for burning and slope degradation is 26,000 yr BP, based on charcoal in slopewash. Kelela Swamp is an infilled meander which commenced building organic sediments about 7000 yr BP. Pollen and magnetic analyses show a high level of human disturbance from that time. Casuarina is widely grown after 2900 yr BP and changes since then support the supposition that quite recent expansion to higher altitudes is taking place. The record provides a contrast with the nearest available equivalent site at Telefomin, but is in general with those from central Papua New Guinea.
Food waste is a compelling and yet hugely under-researched area of interest for social scientists. In order to account for this neglect and to situate the fledgling body of social science scholarship that is starting to engage with food waste, the analysis here does a number of things. It explores the theoretical tendencies that have underpinned the invisibility of waste to the sociological gaze alongside the historical transitions in global food relations that led to the disappearance of concerns about food scarcity – and with them, concerns about food waste – from cultural and political life. It also sketches out some of the processes through which waste has recently (re-)emerged as a priority in the realms of food policy and regulation, cultural politics and environmental debate. Particular attention is paid to the intellectual trajectories that have complemented food waste's rising profile in popular and policy imaginations to call forth sociological engagement with the issue. With this in place, the stage is set for the individual contributions to this Sociological Review Monograph – papers that engage with food waste in a number of contexts, at a variety of scales and from a range of disciplinary perspectives. Together they represent the first attempt collectively to frame potential sociological approaches to understanding food waste.
Cross-cultural psychologists have mostly contrasted East Asia with the West. However, this study shows that there are major
psychological differences within China. We propose that a history of farming rice makes cultures more interdependent, whereas
farming wheat makes cultures more independent, and these agricultural legacies continue to affect people in the modern world.
We tested 1162 Han Chinese participants in six sites and found that rice-growing southern China is more interdependent and
holistic-thinking than the wheat-growing north. To control for confounds like climate, we tested people from neighboring counties
along the rice-wheat border and found differences that were just as large. We also find that modernization and pathogen prevalence
theories do not fit the data.
The amount of food discarded by UK households is substantial and, to a large extent, avoidable. Furthermore, such food waste has serious environmental consequences. If household food waste reduction initiatives are to be successful they will need to be informed by people's motivations and barriers to minimising household food waste. This paper reports a qualitative study of the thoughts, feelings and experiences of 15 UK household food purchasers, based on semi-structured interviews. Two core categories of motives to minimise household food waste were identified: (1) waste concerns and (2) doing the ‘right’ thing. A third core category illustrated the importance of food management skills in empowering people to keep household food waste to a minimum. Four core categories of barriers to minimising food waste were also identified: (1) a ‘good’ provider identity; (2) minimising inconvenience; (3) lack of priority; and (4) exemption from responsibility. The wish to avoid experiencing negative emotions (such as guilt, frustration, annoyance, embarrassment or regret) underpinned both the motivations and the barriers to minimising food waste. Findings thus reveal potentially conflicting personal goals which may hinder existing food waste reduction attempts.
The net emissions of carbon from deforestation and degradation in the tropics, including the draining and burning of peat swamps in SE Asia, averaged similar to 1.4 (+/- 0.5) PgC yr(-1) over the period 1990-2010. Most (60-90%) of the emissions were from deforestation; degradation (or reductions of biomass density within forests) is more difficult to document but results from harvest of wood and the re-clearing of fallow forests within the shifting cultivation cycle. The main driver of deforestation is agriculture, whether permanent or shifting, and whether for food crops or pasture. The relative contribution of deforestation and degradation to anthropogenic carbon emissions has been declining, but reducing emissions from land, along with reduced emissions from fossil fuels, could help stabilize the CO2 concentration of the atmosphere.
Climate change could potentially interrupt progress toward a world without hunger. A robust and coherent global pattern is
discernible of the impacts of climate change on crop productivity that could have consequences for food availability. The
stability of whole food systems may be at risk under climate change because of short-term variability in supply. However,
the potential impact is less clear at regional scales, but it is likely that climate variability and change will exacerbate
food insecurity in areas currently vulnerable to hunger and undernutrition. Likewise, it can be anticipated that food access
and utilization will be affected indirectly via collateral effects on household and individual incomes, and food utilization
could be impaired by loss of access to drinking water and damage to health. The evidence supports the need for considerable
investment in adaptation and mitigation actions toward a “climate-smart food system” that is more resilient to climate change
influences on food security.
In public debates about the volume of food that is currently wasted by UK households, there exists a tendency to blame the consumer or individualise responsibilities for affecting change. Drawing on ethnographic examples, this article explores the dynamics of domestic food practices and considers their consequences in terms of waste. Discussions are structured around the following themes: (1) feeding the family; (2) eating ‘properly’; (3) the materiality of ‘proper’ food and its intersections with the socio-temporal demands of everyday life and (4) anxieties surrounding food safety and storage. Particular attention is paid to the role of public health interventions in shaping the contexts through which food is at risk of wastage. Taken together, I argue that household food waste cannot be conceptualised as a problem of individual consumer behaviour and suggest that policies and interventions might usefully be targeted at the social and material conditions in which food is provisioned.
Maasailand Ecology, Pastoralist Development and Wildlife Conservation in Ngorongoro, Tanzania, by HomewoodK. M. & RodgersW. A.. 298 pp. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1991). £45.00 or $89.95 (hardback). ISBN 0 521 40002 3.. - Volume 119 Issue 1 - J. S. Macfarlane
Where does morality come from? Why are moral judgments often so similar across cultures, yet sometimes so variable? Is morality one thing, or many? Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) was created to answer these questions. In this chapter we describe the origins, assumptions, and current conceptualization of the theory, and detail the empirical findings that MFT has made possible, both within social psychology and beyond. Looking toward the future, we embrace several critiques of the theory, and specify five criteria for determining what should be considered a foundation of human morality. Finally, we suggest a variety of future directions for MFT and for moral psychology.
In this paper a process of negotiating identity among Polish migrants will be discussed in relation to their food habits: consumption, preparation and celebration. Through the ethnographic examination of food rituals the construction of meaning of home as both space and nationality will be observed and the attitude to the host culture will be revealed in the quotidian activities. The qualitative research based on interviews and visual ethnography has shown that there are three dominant ways of exchange with the local culture ranging from the least present to the ostentatiously conspicuous, named here as: orthodox, porous, and alternate. Each of them, however, is characterised by a perplexing degree of fluidity and sometimes contradiction which opposes the objectification of the models of culture, as had been already noticed by Bhabha (2007[1994]) in relation to diasporic cultures and their tactics of adaptation. Home among Polish immigrants to the UK is a changing concept, open to negotiation, depending on their current personal situation, profession, gender, expectations, ambitions and even peer pressure. Yet (re)creating home requires a certain dose of familiarity conceived from the meaning of Polishness which needs to be materialised from past memories on a daily basis. This research shows that such process oscillates between acceptance and rejection recognisable in the acts of mundane rituals, gaining their significance from the emotional engagement of the participants.
The 1997 El Nio event severely affected the western part of the island of New Guinea. A group of highlands villages at Holuwon experienced drought, forest fires and disruption to food production. This article describes the reaction of the villagers to these natural disasters and to the humanitarian aid that they received. The social order was the first to be affected. Severe competition developed for the allotments of humanitarian aid and yet sharing of land and other help were offered to neighbouring ethnic groups. Reactions were also observed at the level of religion and were manifested in the Yalis search for an explanation of the events. Lastly, there was preservation and reconstruction in the form of the fighting of forest fires and the recreation of gardens following the drought.
Sudanese Nuer draw a marked distinction between “the money of work,” you lad, and money acquired through the sale of cattle, you or “the money of cattle.” This dichotomy is balanced by a similar distinction between two sorts of cattle: purchased cattle, youni or “the cattle of money,” and cattle received as bride-wealth, nyët or “the cattle of girls.” Together these four wealth categories, along with several subsidiary ones, play a prominent role in determining relations of autonomy and dependence among the Nuer. This article traces the emergence of these categories over the last half century and analyzes their centrality. [culture and political economy, commoditization, exchange, money, cattle, the Nuer]
Many studies have investigated how different variables influence the reproductive success (RS) in the populations of natural birth control. Here, we tested hypotheses about positive relationship between wealth, height and several measures of RS in an indigenous, traditional society from West Papua. The study was conducted among the Yali tribe in a few small, isolated mountain villages. In this tribe, a man's wealth is measured by the number of pigs he possesses. We found that wealth was related to fertility and number of living children, but not to child mortality in both men and women. Additionally, child mortality increased with the number of children in a family. Finally, we did not observe any relationship between height and reproductive success measures or wealth. We provide several possible explanations of our results and also put forward hypothetical background for further studies of indigenous populations.
Behavioral scientists routinely publish broad claims about human psychology and behavior in the world's top journals based on samples drawn entirely from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) societies. Researchers - often implicitly - assume that either there is little variation across human populations, or that these "standard subjects" are as representative of the species as any other population. Are these assumptions justified? Here, our review of the comparative database from across the behavioral sciences suggests both that there is substantial variability in experimental results across populations and that WEIRD subjects are particularly unusual compared with the rest of the species - frequent outliers. The domains reviewed include visual perception, fairness, cooperation, spatial reasoning, categorization and inferential induction, moral reasoning, reasoning styles, self-concepts and related motivations, and the heritability of IQ. The findings suggest that members of WEIRD societies, including young children, are among the least representative populations one could find for generalizing about humans. Many of these findings involve domains that are associated with fundamental aspects of psychology, motivation, and behavior - hence, there are no obvious a priori grounds for claiming that a particular behavioral phenomenon is universal based on sampling from a single subpopulation. Overall, these empirical patterns suggests that we need to be less cavalier in addressing questions of human nature on the basis of data drawn from this particularly thin, and rather unusual, slice of humanity. We close by proposing ways to structurally re-organize the behavioral sciences to best tackle these challenges.
Research on moral judgment has been dominated by rationalist models, in which moral judgment is thought to be caused by moral reasoning. The author gives 4 reasons for considering the hypothesis that moral reasoning does not cause moral judgment; rather, moral reasoning is usually a post hoc construction, generated after a judgment has been reached. The social intuitionist model is presented as an alternative to rationalist models. The model is a social model in that it deemphasizes the private reasoning done by individuals and emphasizes instead the importance of social and cultural influences. The model is an intuitionist model in that it states that moral judgment is generally the result of quick, automatic evaluations (intuitions). The model is more consistent that rationalist models with recent findings in social, cultural, evolutionary, and biological psychology, as well as in anthropology and primatology.
Humans are biologically adapted to their ancestral food environment in which foods were dispersed and energy expenditure was required to obtain them. The modern developed world has a surplus of very accessible, inexpensive food. Amid the enormous variety of different foods are "super" foods, such as chocolate, which are particularly appealing and calorie dense. Energy output can be minimal to obtain large amounts of food. In terms of education (eg, in nutrition and risk-benefit thinking) and environment design, modern cultures have not kept pace with changes in the food world. Overweight and worrying about food result from this mismatch between human biological predispositions and the current food environment. The French have coped with this mismatch better than Americans. Although at least as healthy as Americans, they focus more on the experience of eating and less on the health effects of eating. They spend more time eating, but they eat less, partly because of smaller portion sizes. French traditions of moderation (versus American abundance), focus on quality (versus quantity), and emphasis on the joys of the moment (rather than making life comfortable and easy) support a healthier lifestyle. The French physical environment encourages slow, moderate social eating, minimal snacking, and more physical activity in daily life.
People are selfish, yet morally motivated. Morality is universal, yet culturally variable. Such apparent contradictions are
dissolving as research from many disciplines converges on a few shared principles, including the importance of moral intuitions,
the socially functional (rather than truth-seeking) nature of moral thinking, and the coevolution of moral minds with cultural
practices and institutions that create diverse moral communities. I propose a fourth principle to guide future research: Morality
is about more than harm and fairness. More research is needed on the collective and religious parts of the moral domain, such
as loyalty, authority, and spiritual purity.
The water and carbon footprint of household food and drink waste in the
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