The document discusses how psychological principles can enhance the impact of documentary films on social change by exploring components of transformation such as compelling stories, emotional engagement, and audience empowerment. Key insights for leveraging impact include reducing psychological distance, eliciting emotions, providing information for awareness, and encouraging audience action. The authors conducted a content analysis of four documentaries to identify effective presentation choices and themes that promote viewer engagement and behavioral change.

1. Film and Social Change:
Psychological Insights
for Leveraging Impact
Beth Karlin
Jazmine Alameddine
School of Social Ecology
University of California Irvine

2. Transformational Media Lab, UCI
Mission:
Our lab studies how media is (and can be) used to
transform individuals, communities, and systems.
Transformation
Individual Community System
Media
Industrial Social

3. Components of Transformation
1. Compelling story
2. Charismatic leaders
3. Infrastructure
4. Opportunity
R. Matthew, 2002

4. Components of Transformation
1. Compelling story
2. Charismatic leaders
3. Infrastructure Documentary Film
4. Opportunity

5. History of Documentary
“We believe that the cinema’s capacity for getting around, for
observing and selecting from life itself, can be exploited in a
new and vital art form”
John Grierson
First Principles of Documentary, 1932

6. History of Documentary
Romanticism
Propagandist
cinéma vérité
historical

7. Documentaries Today
Theatrical release
Director as subject
“docu-ganda”
social action campaigns

8. Impacts of Documentary Film
Draws viewers in
Energize about the issue
Shift from aware to action
Strengthen organizations
policy changes or shifts in dialogue
Can psychology help? Fledgling Fund, 2008

9. Literature Review
1. Construal Level Theory
2. Theory of Emotions
3. Dual Processing Model
4. Protection Motivation Theory
5. Message Framing

10. Construal Level Theory
Psychological Distance
– Spatial
– Temporal
– Social
– Hypothetical
Information that is HERE and NOW given to ME
with HIGH CERTAINTY reduces distance.
(Trope & Liberman, 2010)

11. Plutchik’s Theory of Emotions
1. Emotions are adaptive and evolutionary
2. 8 basic emotions (and many deriviatives)
3. Pairs of polar opposites (positive/negative affect)
4. Emotions vary in similarity, intensity, etc.
(Plutchik, 1980)

12. Dual Process Model

13. Cognitive Appraisal
www.cred.columbia.edu

14. Affective Response
www.cred.columbia.edu

15. Protection Motivation Theory
Perceive
Appraise
Respond
• Threat
appraisal
• Coping
appraisal

16. Protection Motivation Theory
• Threat Appraisal
– Threat Severity
– Threat Vulnerability
• Coping Appraisal
– Behavioral Efficacy
– Response Efficacy

17. Protection Motivation Theory
High
Coping
Low
Coping
High
Threat
Response
Anxiety
Low
Threat
Apathy
Indifference
Rogers, 1983

18. Message Framing
• The way in which a message is framed affects persuasion.
– Affect  Emotional reactivity
– Emotional reactivity changes information processing
• Mixed messages work!
+ affect, - information
- affect, + information
(Keller, Lipkus, & Rimer, 2003; Smith & Petty, 1996) www.cred.columbia.edu

19. Current Research
• Goal: Investigate the use of psychological principles in
documentary film to better understand how presentation
choices can leverage impacts
• Approach: Content analysis of four documentaries:
– An Inconvenient Truth
– Invisible Children
– Manufactured Landscapes
– Supersize Me

20. Content Analysis - Codes
• Temporal scope (current, near future, distant future)
• Spatial scope (local, nonlocal, global)
• Identifiability (one person, many people, animal, nature)
• Personal relevance (first person, second person, third person)
• Interconnectedness (isolated, systemic)
• Risk certainty (definite, possible)
• Positive/negative affect (music, imagery, content, tone)
• Surprise/Expectancy violation
• Information (statistics, stories)
• Problem orientation (cause, effect, solution)
• Agent of change (individual, collective, government, business)

21. The Road to Engagement
• Construal Level Theory (Psychological distance)
– Identifiably
– Interconnectedness
– Personal relevance
– Risk certainty
• Theory of Emotion
– Affective priming (emotional reactivity)
• Dual Process Model (Education)
– Cognitive (facts/statistics)
– Affective (stories/images)
• Protection Motivation Theory (Empowerment)
– Evidence of Success (what has been done)
– Solution (what is being done/can be done)
– Specific Action (what the viewer can do)

22. Analysis / Findings
• Analysis
• Use of multiple coders for increased reliability
• Discrepancies resolved through discussion
• Iterative triangulation (Lewis, 1998) - Connecting
themes to theory and back again
• Findings
• Identified several recurring codes/themes in data
• Significant variation in codes between films
• Developed 5 key insights for leveraging impact
• Integrated insights into previous impact model

23. Five Insights for Leveraging Impact
1. Reduce distance to increase level of involvement
2. Elicit emotion to create receptivity
3. Provide information to increase awareness
4. Empower audiences to engage behavior
5. Combine elements for maximum effect

24. Five Insights for Leveraging Impact
1. Reduce distance to increase level of involvement
2. Elicit emotion to create receptivity
3. Provide information to increase awareness
4. Empower audiences to engage behavior
5. Combine elements for maximum effect

26. Five Insights for Leveraging Impact
1. Reduce distance to increase level of involvement
2. Elicit emotion to create receptivity
3. Provide information to increase awareness
4. Empower audiences to engage behavior
5. Combine elements for maximum effect

27. African Children

28. Five Insights for Leveraging Impact
1. Reduce distance to increase level of involvement
2. Elicit emotion to create receptivity
3. Provide information to increase awareness
4. Empower audiences to engage behavior
5. Combine elements for maximum effect

29. - affect, - info (data)

30. Five Insights for Leveraging Impact
1. Reduce distance to increase level of involvement
2. Elicit emotion to create receptivity
3. Provide information to increase awareness
4. Empower audiences to engage behavior
5. Combine elements for maximum effect

32. Five Insights for Leveraging Impact
1. Reduce distance to increase level of involvement
2. Elicit emotion to create receptivity
3. Provide information to increase awareness
4. Empower audiences to engage behavior
5. Combine elements for maximum effect

33. - affect, - info (story)

36. Five Insights for Leveraging Impact
1. Reduce distance to increase level of involvement
2. Elicit emotion to create receptivity
3. Provide information to increase awareness
4. Empower audiences to engage behavior
5. Combine elements for maximum effect

38. Leveraging Impact
Emotion
Education
Empowerment

39. Next Steps
1. Compelling story
2. Charismatic leaders Film
Test clips in experimental setting
3. Infrastructure
4. Opportunity Campaign
Campaign components
Quantifying “the ripple effect”
Latent impacts of participation

40. Thank you!
Beth Karlin
bkarlin@uci.edu
The film is the greatest teacher because it teaches us
not only through the brain but through the whole body.
Pudovkin, 1948