Documentary films can increase public interest in plant-based diets in the USA

Abstract

Here we investigate the impacts of media advocating plant-based diets. Search volume for popular films explains the majority of variance in searches for plant-based food, but is not associated with consumption. For three documentaries, we estimated that a standard deviation increase in searches for each film increases searches for plant-based food by up to 43% in the following week. Our findings can inform approaches for raising awareness of sustainable diets. An analysis of popular media finds that, based on internet searches, documentary films can increase short-term interest in plant-based diets.