Harnessing the power of awe: Reducing plate waste in restaurants for sustainable dining

Plate waste constitutes a pressing challenge to sustainable hospitality. Recent studies suggest that emotion-based interventions are effective in encouraging food conservation among customers. Combining randomized field experiment and scenarioexperiments, this research demonstrates that the emotion of awe can reduce customers’ platewaste behaviors and intentions in restaurants. The findings show that evoking awe significantly reduced the actual plate waste of buffet guests. The effect of awe on reducingplate waste intentions operates through the serial mediators of small self and connectednesstonature. Moreover, causal-chain evidence reveals that connectedness to nature plays anessential role in this effect. When awe is evoked by man-made wonders, where connectednessto nature is minimal, the awe effect on reducing plate waste intentions disappears. Thesefindings advance the literature on sustainable hospitality management by demonstratinghowawe can effectively guide restaurant guests toward more sustainable dining practices as anemotion-based intervention.