Year: 2024
Type: preprint
Abstract: Plant-based diets can help mitigate climate change. We investigated longitudinal effects of popular media that encourage plant-based diets from diverse perspectives, including health, environment, and animal welfare. We systematically searched for the most popular such media, which were all films. In initial correlational analyses, Google search interest for the films explained the majority (73%) of variance in search interest for plant-based food, but was not associated with consumption of meat or of plant-based alternatives. In primary analyses using pre-registered causal inference models that controlled for confounding, we estimated that each 1-SD increase in search interest for the health-focused films What the Health (2017), The Game Changers (2018), and You Are What You Eat (2024) increased search interest in plant-based food by 43%, 11%, and 11% respectively in the following week. These results can inform communication approaches for ongoing efforts of governments and other organizations encouraging sustainable diets.
Source: OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints)
Authors: anna thomas, Jessica Elizabeth Hope, Maya B Mathur
Institutions: Stanford University, Stanford Medicine
Language: English
Subfield: Ecology
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDGs: Climate action, Zero hunger
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4400334936