Evaluating the impact of the documentary seriesBlue PlanetIIon viewers' plastic consumption behaviors

The global scale of the ocean plastics crisis demands a collective change in plastic consumption behaviors. The documentary seriesBlue Planet IIhas been praised for driving changes in consumer behaviors by raising awareness about this issue, yet there is little evidence that directly links the documentary to viewers' plastic consumption. We investigated the effectiveness ofBlue Planet IIas a behavior change intervention by conducting randomized control trials and used revealed preferences to measure plastic consumption behaviors. Although environmental knowledge was found to be positively influenced byBlue Planet II, this did not translate into a behavioral change among participants. Our results support the hypothesis that, due to the complexities of human behavior, exposure to a single documentary is unlikely to lead to a distinct increase in individual pro-environmental actions. However, the potential forBlue Planet IIto have an impact at a wider societal level, namely through influencing policy, remains unexplored.