The influence of messages on behavioural intentions and attitudes towards palm oil production

Palm oil (Elaeis guineenis) production has seen a rapid increase in the last century due to greater demand for this versatile vegetable oil. The boom in production has come at the expense of environmental damage to the regions where its produced like Indonesia and Malaysia. People from around the world can shape the demand for products that contain palm oil and ultimately how it is produced. In order to promote behaviours that support sustainable production of palm oil it is important to understand which variables effect sustainable consumer behaviours. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of different message frames on zoo visitors, zoo members and zoo social media followers’ behavioural intentions and attitudes towards palm oil production. An online survey (n=910) was conducted and it was found that the sample showed, on average, that they mostly agreed that palm oil production should be sustainable to reduce the impact on the environment and preferred that brands clearly label what vegetable oil they use. The majority also reported intentions to engage in behaviours aligned with these attitudes and purchase products that have Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO) in them. Generally, the message frames tested in this study were not found have a significant influence on how participants responded to the attitude and behavioural intention statements. This suggests the sample respondents were already well aware and engaged with the palm oil issue likely due to the messages they’ve previously received from Zoos Victoria’s long running palm oil campaign “Don’t Palm Us Off”. The results provide zoo-based conservation organisations with the information required to design campaigns to inspire a zoo audience to adopt attitudes and behavioural intentions that support sustainable palm oil production.