Are We over the "Jaws Effect?"

Summary

The movie Jaws has been terrifying moviegoers since it hit theaters 50 years ago. Now, the reputational damage the horror film inflicted on actual sharks may be beginning to wane. In several studies on public perceptions of sharks over the past decade, participants tended to report moderate to high levels of fear, often linking sharks with words like “blood” and “death.” This highlights a prevalent misconception, given that shark attacks on people are extremely rare around the globe. But a new paper paints a more complex picture of humans’ evolving attitudes toward sharks.In an online survey of 371 people, mostly from Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, more than two thirds of respondents used neutral terms to describe sharks, according to results published in the journal Wildlife Research. Scientists from the University of South Australia asked the participants to describe sharks using just three words. The most common answers were “teeth,” “ocean,” and “predator.” ADVERTISEMENT Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . Read more: “The Shark Whisperer”The researchers used various techniques to analyze the emotional motivation behind more than 1,000 submitted words. For instance, the team divided the words into categories, such as shark conservation and benefits to humans, that they labeled as positive, neutral, or negative. The majority of words—67.5 percent—fell in neutral categories. The neutral terms included “teeth,” “ocean,” and “surfing.” Meanwhile, 17.5 percent were considered positive, like “majestic” and “cute,” and 15.3 percent were considered negative, including “blood” and “killer.”The researchers also ran the words through a sentiment analysis algorithm, which linked around 30 percent of them to fear—with the second most prevalent emotion, joy, tied to about 17 percent of all submitted words. ADVERTISEMENT Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . “The findings highlight that public pe...