Abstract
Whereas past research has shown that using environmental arguments to reduce meat intake are unsuccessful in awareness campaigns, popular documentaries might have the potential to successfully change the public awareness of the environmental implications of meat consumption today. This preliminary study aimed to provide first empirical evidence of the potential effects of watching a popular documentary on a less-known environmental topic among a population that are habitual performers of the behavior under discussion. More precisely, the effects of watching “Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret” on the awareness of the environmental implications of meat consumption, the attitude towards eating less meat, and the intention to eat less meat in young adults who consume meat on an (almost) daily basis was studied. The potential impact of Cowspiracy was investigated from the Integrated Change Model perspective. Paper-and-pencil questionnaires were administered to N = 47 participants aged between 19 and 32 before and after watching either Cowspiracy (experimental group, n = 26) or Planet Earth (control group, n = 21). Controlling for the influence of predisposing factors (sociodemographic characteristics gender, age, and socioeconomic status), the results show that watching a popular documentary about the environmental impact of meat production (Cowspiracy) can have a significant effect on the awareness of the environmental consequences of meat consumption, the attitude towards eating less meat, and the intention to reduce meat consumption of young (almost) daily meat eaters. However, results should be interpreted with caution, given the preliminary nature of our study.
Highlights
In recent years, the entertainment business and popular documentaries such as Cowspiracy, Forks Over Knives, and What the Health have played a central role in the public awareness of the environmental implications of meat consumption (Harrington et al, 2019)
The goal of the present study was to preliminary explore the impact of watching a popular video-documentary about the environmental impact of meat production and consumption, a less-known environmental topic, among a sample of medium and high meat-eaters, relying on the I-Change Model
The main findings indicated a significant change in knowledge on the environmental consequences of meat consumption among those participants who watched Cowspiracy, but not among participants who watched two episodes of Planet Earth
Summary
The entertainment business and popular documentaries such as Cowspiracy, Forks Over Knives, and What the Health have played a central role in the public awareness of the environmental implications of meat consumption (Harrington et al, 2019). This seems to contradict with past and current research that has shown that using environmental arguments to eat less meat do not make campaigns for meat reduction successful (Cordts et al, 2014; Austgulen et al, 2018). Harrington et al (2019) suggested that productions of the entertainment industry may have similar effects on the public awareness of the environmental implications of meat consumption, they did not scientifically investigate this
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