Evaluating the impact of the documentary series Blue Planet II on viewers' plastic consumption behaviors

Summary

An experimental test of the ‘Blue Planet effect’. Matilda Dunn and colleagues showed 146 volunteers either Blue Planet II’s plastics episode or an older one without a conservation message, covertly noting whether they chose snacks in plastic or paper. Knowledge rose; choices didn’t significantly shift. Their caution: “reach is distinguished from impact”, and “understanding alone cannot drive action”.

Rationale

Habit, its authors suggest, may be what their model missed. We’d agree: we see dispositions as cultural habits, which is why shifting them “using communications alone doesn’t tend to work”.