Documentary Films and Pro-Environmental Behavior

With more and more people watching documentaries on global warming, it is important to understand how these films influence thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes.

(Benites, 2021)

Environmental activist, Greta Thunberg's "How dare you!"(United Nations, 2019, 0:28) called humans out for their unforgivable actions. However, her warning was ignored ruthlessly.

It is ironic how global warming is one of the most concerning issues the planet is facing today yet attention is being driven away from it. To keep the conversation ongoing, it is crucial to keep people engaged. One effective way of achieving this is by watching climate change documentary films. To understand how this category of audio-visual media produces change, first, it is necessary to evaluate whether climate change documentary films stir the conscience of the people and encourage them.

“We are in the beginning of a mass extinction. And all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth” (United Nations, 2019, 0:47).

Several studies have pointed out that the act of watching documentaries induces heightened awareness and willingness to change the course of action. For instance, Griep & Reimer (2016) found that screening of An Inconvenient Truth, a documentary on global warming, proved to be extremely useful in educating students about complex scientific phenomena involved in the said issue.

Documentary Films Influence Behavior

These films not only shape our attitudes and beliefs but also increase the likelihood of developing behavior favorable to the surroundings. This idea is supported by Janpol & Dilts (2016) who found that participants who watched a film about saving dolphins leaned more towards donating to a fund to save these creatures. Similar results were documented by Bondi et al. (2021) who observed that after watching The Human Element, a climate change documentary film, participants continued to feel motivated even after nine weeks following the experiment.

Additionally, certain characteristics and strategies make these films well-received by the audience. In a study conducted by Lin (2013), 252 undergraduate students watched An Inconvenient Truth and rated it on several parameters. She found that the desirability and higher quality of the message produced greater effects on the audience. It induced a first-person effect, the tendency that something influences oneself greater than it affects others.

Climate change documentaries, thus, are a strong means to an end. They appeal to pathos through dramatic narratives and powerful imagery to increase the viewers’ readiness to take action and thus, are an effective means to educate people about environmental concerns and urge them to take action.