Comparative self-assessment in household food waste management: underestimation, alignment and overestimation

Purpose This study examines a contemporary challenge in management by assessing how households' comparative self-assessments of food waste (less than, about the same as, or more than other households) align with their reported weekly quantity relative to the sample mean, and identifying factors associated with underestimation, accurate assessment and overestimation. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional online survey of 1,000 households in Bosnia and Herzegovina is analysed. Among 945 respondents with a valid comparative self-assessment, a three-category outcome is modelled using multinomial logistic regression with robust average marginal effects. Latent class analysis (LCA) identifies behavioural profiles. A robustness model compares overestimation with underestimation among the 568 respondents whose comparative self-assessment is misaligned with their reported weekly food-waste quantity relative to the sample mean. Findings Among valid cases, 50.2% underestimate, 39.9% assess accurately and 9.9% overestimate their relative food waste. Higher income and reporting fresh foods as the main wasted category are strongly associated with underestimation, whereas awareness is associated with less downward bias. LCA identifies two profiles in which moderate-to-high awareness coexists with substantially different food-management routines. Originality/value The study advances household food waste research by distinguishing the direction of comparative self-assessment bias relative to a survey-derived quantity proxy and by linking underestimation, accurate assessment and overestimation to household characteristics and heterogeneous food-management profiles.