Seeking Benefits or Avoiding Risks? Public Opinion Content and Consumers' Purchase Intention Toward Aquatic Products: The Case of Basa Fish.

Information asymmetry in aquatic product markets heightens consumers' perceived food safety risks. Using basa fish as the focal product, this study examined how public opinion content influences purchase intention through perceived benefits and perceived sacrifices, and whether regulatory focus moderates these effects. Based on a scenario experiment, prior basa fish consumers were randomly assigned to positive, balanced, or negative video conditions; the final per-protocol sample comprised 742 participants. Baseline-adjusted analyses showed that positive content produced the highest perceived benefits and purchase intention and the lowest perceived sacrifices, balanced content produced intermediate responses, and negative content produced the least favorable responses. Significant indirect effects operated through perceived benefits and perceived sacrifices. Regulatory focus produced selective moderation: among more promotion-oriented consumers, the positive-versus-negative and balanced-versus-negative advantages in perceived benefits, and the balanced-versus-negative reduction in perceived sacrifices, were greater; among more prevention-oriented consumers, the balanced-versus-negative advantage in purchase intention was greater. These findings clarify how complete public opinion message packages shape consumer evaluations and provide guidance for aquatic product communication and market governance.