Experimental research has found that showing meat eaters graphic footage makes people feel anger and sadness and can change their attitudes and beliefs about farmed animals, but stops short of changing their diet. Most people also generally support undercover investigations and don’t want to punish investigators. In these ways, graphic footage certainly has benefits.
Björn Ólafsson: Footage of animal suffering taken in factory farms, slaughterhouses, or other contexts is undoubtedly controversial — but is it effective?
On an organizational level, it’s likely that specific undercover investigations will lead to institutional change at least some of the time. We weren’t able to find a study measuring this, but anecdotal evidence from past campaigns shows that multiple food brands have changed their practices as a result of undercover footage being made public, and the corresponding backlash.
Big Ag seems to agree that images of animal farming benefit animal advocacy. A 2017 paper found that showing participants images of pig containment facilities led people to view the animal industry more negatively. The authors — who published the paper in an agricultural journal — go on to advise animal farmers not to use webcams to increase transparency.
Our experimental research also found that showing meat eaters graphic footage can change their attitudes and beliefs about farmed animals, but stops short of changing their diet. Unsurprisingly, undercover footage makes people feel anger and sadness, but it also leads people to donate more to animal NGOs, according to a 2024 experiment. Most people also generally support undercover investigations and don’t want to punish investigators. In these ways, graphic footage certainly has benefits.
Graphic footage relies on moral shock — the mix of anger, bewilderment, and disgust that can arise when one sees something amoral (like cruelty, bigotry, suffering, or injustice). Importantly, moral shock isn’t the same as surprise; you can actually experience moral shock even if you expect it to happen. For example, if you know that a certain politician is prone to tweeting certain bigoted statements, you may still experience moral shock if you see a new vile statement that harms your worldview.
The same is true for animal suffering: even if you already believe animal farming is morally wrong, undercover footage can still give you a sense of moral shock. As advocates, it is important to avoid the overuse of moral shock because it can often delay other important emotions like anger that cause action. Therefore, it is recommended to pair unpleasant undercover footage with other messages to mitigate moral shock, like hope, directionality, individuality, and more. SOURCE…
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