"
. With Garbage in, insights out?
Posted Under: Consumer Behavior
I wish this bit in The Economist had been longer. It’s about excavating waste for information about how we consume.
A research programme at the University of Arizona conducted several studies comparing the participants’ own assessments of their habits with the record provided by their rubbish. It turned out that people wasted much more food than they realised, claimed to cook from scratch more often than they really did and ate more junk food and less virtuous stuff than they admitted.
A survey involving red meant consumption found:
Rich households, perhaps wanting to be seen to be eating healthily, claimed to consume less of it than they did, whereas poor ones, possibly indulging in wishful thinking, claimed to eat more.
Another interesting finding:
A well-publicised shortage of a particular product actually causes people to throw more of it away, perhaps because they have bought too much of it.
Great stuff. I read so much “data” about consumer behavior that is really nothing than polls. People can lie to pollsters — or, more to the point, lie to themselves. The upshot is rubbish. Maybe studying actual rubbish is a better idea.
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Kim Fellner's book 
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Reader Comments
Hi Rob,
The stuff you’re talking about comes from the 1970s, started by an archaeologist named William Rathje, who is still doing it, and who sparked a new kind of anthropo/archaeo/sociology. I think they also found that rather than food-insecure families buying less, they spent more, and that people with less money frequently threw out more stuff. It says a lot about our tendency to hoard. Living simply may be a luxury in a society where so much social pressure comes from consumption.
Here’s one link to give you some search fodder.
http://www.ralphmag.org/DV/garbology.html.
I used to be an archaeologist and I used modern garbage when I did workshops with kids. I used to get them to interpret what I brought in, and it was always so interesting what they’d come up with. I thought they’d say I was a healthy person with a lot of interests, and I would be, if not flattered, then relieved at how they would read me, but no, based on just a few items, it turns out they could see right through my facade, right to my lazy, lazy bones.
Garbology is such a simple concept, but it’s fascinating.
This is really interesting data. Thanks for the link!
There are a couple of good books on the subject to be found on Amazon, too.
Jane, that info is super interesting and helpful. Thank you!