Bridging the emotional gap: Human and animal characters in conservation documentaries

For any living creature, a working ecosystem is what gives it the reassurance of life. Yet, the world is facing an alarming biodiversity crisis. According to the WWF Living Planet Report (2024), global wildlife populations have declined by 73% over the last fifty years (p.7). This rapid loss of species not only disrupts ecosystems but directly impacts our clean water, food supply, and climate resilience. WWF and other organizations call for urgent action from all levels of society, increasingly using documentaries as a key tool in conservation storytelling. This thesis explores one of their most persuasive tools: character identification. While many studies have examined how environmental films influence attitudes, less is known about how viewers experience identification with different types of protagonists. This qualitative research investigates how young adults identify with human versus animal main characters in conservation documentaries. This study draws on Deictic Shift Theory and the Extended Elaboration Likelihood Model (E-ELM), focusing specifically on character identification as a central process within narrative persuasion. Through in-depth interviews with fifteen young adults, participants watched two contrasting documentary fragments: one with an animal protagonist (from Our Oceans) and one featuring a human protagonist (from My Octopus Teacher). Thematic analysis revealed that identification with the human character was generally more direct and emotionally accessible, particularly when demographic similarities were present. However, the animal character still evoked identification, albeit in more cognitive and imaginative ways, often supported by narrative and cinematic tools like music, voice-over, and anthropomorphism. Identification was measured using five indicators drawn from the theoretical framework: empathy, perspective-taking, homophily, liking, and wishful identification. While empathy and homophily emerged as the strongest indicators, identification was rarely a linear process. Especially in the case of the octopus, identification often required an extra imaginative step. All findings are structured around five key themes: the emotional gap between viewer and animal, the power of narrative and cinematic techniques in bridging this gap, the role of human presence and anthropomorphism, the importance of perceived realism, and subtle shifts in conservation attitudes. This thesis offers practical insights for NGOs, filmmakers, and science communicators who aim to craft emotionally resonant conservation documentaries. In this, the study contributes to a deeper understanding of the emotional processes behind storytelling and persuasion in conservation documentaries, and calls for more nuanced character design to engage audiences in the fight to protect biodiversity.