From Message Framing to Purchase Intention: The Mediating Role of Attitude Towards the Message in Pro‐Environmental Food Communication

ABSTRACT Developing effective communication for pro‐environmental foods requires understanding the persuasive link between message stimuli and consumer response. This study integrates message framing theory with the dual mediation hypothesis to examine attitude towards the message as a key mediator between induced emotions and purchase intention. A between‐subjects experiment ( N = 1483) employing multigroup SEM in Spain and Denmark shows that attitude towards the message constitutes the primary mechanism through which emotions—particularly positive ones—exert their influence. Crucially, cross‐national variation in the estimated structural pattern was observed. While Denmark exhibits a model of total mediation through attitude towards the message, Spain displays a dual pathway in which mediated and direct emotional effects coexist. These findings advance research on pro‐environmental food communication by indicating that framing‐induced emotions are associated with more favourable purchase intentions primarily through positive evaluations of the message, with differences in the strength of these estimated pathways being consistent with broader contextual variation in pro‐environmental market maturity and product involvement.