Environmental messages to promote sustainable seafood choices: An exploratory mobile app intervention

Using an exploratory mobile app intervention, we investigated the effectiveness of messages focusing on environmental awareness and/or environmental skills to promote sustainable seafood choices. In this study, 348 volunteers participated in a 10-week intervention. Depending on the experimental condition, participants read messages for 36 days: a) environmental awareness messages (i.e., information about the environmental impact of seafood production); b) environmental skills messages (i.e., information focusing on how to recognise and prepare sustainable seafood); c) combined messages (i.e., information that combined the previous two messages); d) no messages. We compared the effects of the conditions on attitudes towards purchasing sustainable seafood, perceived behavioural control over purchasing sustainable seafood, seafood choice, and self-reported purchase. After the intervention, participants who received the environmental awareness messages reported more positive attitudes and higher perceived behavioural control. These improvements remained stable during the follow-up period (1 month after the end of the intervention). The environmental skills messages led to an increase in positive attitudes, perceived behavioural control, and purchasing behaviour, although the purchase of sustainable seafood started to decrease at follow-up. The combined messages improved attitudes and perceived behavioural control. In addition, participants in this condition purchased more sustainable seafood at follow-up. These results contribute to our understanding of how messages can be designed to promote sustainable seafood choices.