Need to change, want to change, hard to change - consumer profiles for sustainable food consumption

Summary

Consumers play a key role in the much-needed transition to a more sustainable food system. However, consumers' willingness and ability to undergo behavioural changes may depend on personality traits as well as their motivation and awareness of the need for a more sustainable food consumption. Segmentation of consumers can therefore be useful for understanding individual differences and for the development of targeted interventions for behavioural changes. In this paper, an instrument to profile and classify Norwegian consumers is developed using a national representative sample (N = 3600). The proposed instrument comprises twenty items to measure personality traits defined by a condensed version of the Big Five Inventory as well as seven items related to attitudes to food waste, reuse and recycling. Three segments characterised by differences in openness to experience, and attitudes to food waste and reuse/recycling were identified. The segments are profiled on habits related to purchase behaviour, meal planning, as well as frequency of meat and vegetable consumption. Based on the profiles, the segments were labelled Need to Change (30%), Want to Change (41%) and Hard to Change (29%) emphasizing either low concern about food waste (Need to Change), higher concern and openness to change (Want to Change) or low scores on openness (Hard to Change). We propose that the developed instrument can be applied for profiling consumers in the Norwegian context, for tailoring consumer interventions. The study underscores that supporting the food system transition requires differentiated consumer strategies: engaging the motivated, empowering the open, and carefully reaching the resistant.

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DOI : doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.202...
NVA : hdl.handle.net/11250/5514670