Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 60 (2021) 102470 Available online 14 January 2021 0969-6989/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. The interactive effect of numerical precision and message framing in increasing consumer awareness of food waste issues Mary Khalil b , Felix Septianto a, * , Bodo Lang b , Gavin Northey c a University of Queensland, 39 Blair Dr, St Lucia QLD, 4067, Australia b Department of Marketing, University of Auckland, 12 Grafton Road, Auckland, 1010, New Zealand c Department of Marketing, Griffth University, Gold Coast, Queensland, 4215, Australia A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Message framing Information precision Food waste ABSTRACT Food waste has become a pressing problem in the world, leading to a range of economic, social, and environ- mental issues. As a result, there are increasing calls to develop effective messages that can increase consumer awareness of food waste and its negative impacts. Drawing upon a recent research on the infuences of numerical precision on consumer decision making, the present research tests the ‘match-up’ effects between numerical precision and message framing on consumer awareness of food waste issues. Two experimental studies (N total = 799) show that more (vs. less) precise numerical information can increase consumer awareness of food waste issues when combined with a loss message framing, whereas less (vs. more) precise numerical information is more effective when combined with a gain message framing. This research also examines the role of time availability as a boundary condition, such that when perceptions of time availability is heightened or reduced, the predicted effects are attenuated. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed. 1. Introduction Food waste has become a pressing problem in the world (Garrone et al., 2014) due to its connection with environmental, fnancial and social problems (Halloran et al., 2014; Pearson and Perera, 2018). Food waste causes eight percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and uses 30% of agricultural land and 20% of fresh water to produce food that is never eaten (FAO, 2018). As a fnancial issue, it has become a burden by wasting nearly one third of globally produced food for human con- sumption, which is equivalent to US$ 1 trillion (FAO, 2020). Food waste is also connected to social problems and food insecurity (Oelofse and Nahman, 2013). It has been estimated that by saving a quarter of the total food wasted each year, 870 million undernourished people could be fed (FAO, 2016). Recently, there has been an increasing attention to food waste issue (Porpino, 2016). A piece of evidence is the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals aiming to halve global food waste per capita by 2030 (UN, 2015). One major step to attain this goal is reducing food waste at the consumption stage (Graham-Rowe et al., 2014; Griffn et al., 2009), which accounts for approximately 35% of all food waste (Worl- d-Resources-Institution, 2013). It has been shown that one of the most signifcant contributors of this stage is households (Kim et al., 2019). For example, in USA and Europe, around 32% (Yu and Jaenicke, 2020) and 53% (FUSIONS, 2016) of food waste arise from households respectively, despite this waste being mostly edible and avoidable (Graham-Rowe et al., 2014); thus, households are signifcant contributors to food waste. Given the possibility of reducing food waste by increasing awareness (FAO, 2011) and taking prevention strategies, which are more effective than treating food waste (Quested et al., 2011), there are increasing calls to develop effective messages that can reduce the amount of food waste by increasing awareness (Pearson and Perera, 2018; Porpino, 2016). Importantly, food waste messages often contain large amounts of numerical information such as the amount of food wasted, its equivalent environmental, fnancial and social costs, and the number of people who are affected by food waste. It has been shown that on one hand, nu- merical information plays a prominent role in persuading consumers because of its objectivity (Viswanathan and Narayanan, 1994). On the other hand, numerical message frames infuence how individuals perceive and process the message (Brase, 2002). Hence, in addition to the frames of messages, there should be enough attention to the frames of the content particularly numerical information (Brase, 2008), which highlights the importance of investigating how numerical information * Corresponding author. University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. E-mail addresses: mary.khalil@auckland.ac.nz (M. Khalil), f.septianto@uq.edu.au (F. Septianto), b.lang@auckland.ac.nz (B. Lang), g.northey@griffth.edu.au (G. Northey). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jretconser https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2021.102470 Received 19 September 2020; Received in revised form 3 December 2020; Accepted 7 January 2021