Frame by frame, attitude by attitude - The effect of information framing in videos on consumers' acceptance of sustainable food production innovations

Innovations in the agricultural sector were identified as key drivers for the transition towards more sustainable food production. To achieve consumer acceptance, it is necessary to communicate about innovations and sustainable food production processes effectively. This study investigates the effect of loss- and gain-framing on consumers' implicit and explicit attitudes towards, and purchase intentions of, agricultural innovations, using the example of beneficial soil-microbes in tomato production. We conducted a pre-registered, online, experimental study with a between-subjects design among German consumers (n = 754). To test the effect of communication, three video clips were created: a control video, a loss-frame video and a gain-frame video. The control video described the innovation on a technical level without specific framing. Through the usage of videos, visual and linguistic framing cues could be applied. Group comparisons of the different types of framing did not result in significant differences. Results of a serial mediation analysis show that explicit attitudes play an important role in the model. The effect of both loss- and gain-framing in relation to the control video resulted in a significant effect on explicit attitudes, and these in turn had a significant effect on purchase intentions. Findings from this study suggest that information videos that describe the consequences of innovation application (loss- or gain-framing) contribute more strongly towards innovation acceptance than more technical and neutral accounts (our control video) of the innovation.