Over the past two decades, many films, books, and YouTube videos have promoted plant-based eating. Among the most popular are documentaries such as What The Health, You Are What You Eat, and The Game Changers, which have reached millions of viewers. But do people switch to a more plant-based diet after watching these films? To find out, researchers explored whether the popularity of vegan films was followed by more plant-based Google searches and food purchases. By looking at trends in the U.S. and worldwide, this study sheds light on whether documentaries can lead to real-world change.

Health-Based Documentaries Stand Out

The researchers began by identifying the most popular veganism-related media of the past 20 years. From a long list of articles, books, films, podcasts, and YouTube videos, they selected the most popular titles.

Based on Google search volume, Okja (2017) was the most popular, followed by What The Health (2017), The Game Changers (2018), You Are What You Eat (2024), Forks Over Knives (2011), and Cowspiracy (2015). These six films were analyzed further. Other media, such as the book Eating Animals and the film Dominion, fell below the researchers’ set popularity threshold and were excluded from the study.

Interestingly, four of the six most popular films (67%) focus on the health benefits of plant-based diets, compared to 36% of all media types considered. This suggests that health-based arguments tend to reach a wider audience than those centered on ethics.

To test whether the six most popular films influenced public interest in plant-based eating, the researchers compared Google search trends about the films with terms containing “vegan,” “vegetarian,” and “plant based.” Behavior-related searches, such as “best plant based restaurants near me” or “easy vegetarian recipes” were categorized separately. Next, they looked at U.S. sales data for meat, milk, and plant-based alternatives to see whether film popularity was followed by shifts in food demand.

People Show Intent To Change

Of the six films studied, What The Health, The Game Changers, and You Are What You Eat stand out. When these three health-focused documentaries are popular, there’s a clear increase in Google searches related to plant-based diets. In the U.S., each unit increase in popularity for What the Health, The Game Changers, and You Are What You Eat led to a 24%, 9%, and 8% increase in “plant based” searches the following week, respectively. Similar increases were found worldwide (20%, 18%, and 6%).

But people didn’t just search for more information about plant-based diets: they also actively searched for ways to eat more plant-based. In the U.S., behavioral plant-based searches increased by 43%, 11%, and 11%. Worldwide, they increased by 31%, 17%, and 7%. This suggests that these three documentaries lead people to intend to change their diet. The other three films showed weaker effects.

Given this intention to change, a shift in consumption habits could be expected to follow. However, analysis of the national sales data didn’t reveal a clear effect of film popularity on animal-based or plant-based food demand. If there’s an effect, it might be too small and long-term to be captured here. This pattern matches with earlier studies: documentaries often inspire people to change, but this doesn’t directly lead to behavior change. Barriers such as price, taste, and convenience of plant-based options may hold people back.

From Intention To Action

While we wait for more research on how to turn intention into lasting change, animal advocates can draw useful lessons from this study. First, health-related documentaries generally reach a wider audience than those focusing on animal rights. Hence, when the goal is to reach many people, it might be a good idea to include health-based arguments. However, it’s important to be careful with this finding. Because only six films were studied in detail, this research doesn’t demonstrate whether health or ethical arguments are more effective in changing people’s intentions.

Most importantly, this study shows that some vegan documentaries can have a measurable impact on public interest. When these documentaries are popular, more people want to eat plant-based food. But the step from this intention to action remains a challenge. Animal advocates can likely help with this step by improving access to affordable, tasty, and convenient plant-based food, alongside continued education and inspiration.