By: Inas Essa
Needless to say, previous experience shapes future attitudes; when you ask someone who was previously attacked by a dog about their views on dogs, s/he would express worry and annoyance towards them, or maybe other pets as well. The same goes for other experiences, good or bad; the more distant and unreachable the object or animal is, the more danger perceived about them, as it becomes hard to get into contact with them to change our minds.
Sharks are creatures that have mostly been associated with danger, devouring human and marine creatures. We always see that on the news and social media. This can definitely deepen the idea of their danger and impact our attitudes towards them. What would happen if what is represented to us about these creatures is positive? Could this change our perspective about them? A new study provides interesting results on this point.
Related: How Can Biodiversity Help Reduce Extinction Risk in Birds?
Positive Videos Can Tweak our Perspective about Sharks
The new study from North Carolina State University has investigated this point and showed positive results regarding how watching positive videos of sharks could help change our attitudes in the predators’ favor. That will not only change our perspectives; our attitudes would also change, which would work for shark conservation and biodiversity preservation.
A previous study published in Nature on 27 January 2021 investigated the global decline in oceanic shark populations; it revealed that they have declined 71% since 1970, primarily due to overfishing. The study’s lead author Justin Beall, a graduate student at NC State says: “Think of the movie Jaws, for example. We need to explore ways to foster human tolerance of sharks, a key component of their conservation”.
While previous research has shown that online videos can help build support for wolves, the case is not the same with sharks. Although wolves have also been suffering for so long, many people globally support their protection, according to study co-author Lincoln Larson, the associate professor of parks, recreation, and tourism management at NC State. That is because this specie is charismatic, cute, and not widely perceived as a major threat to humans. However, sharks are perceived as a real danger.
How Could Watching Videos Impact our Attitude?
In the recent study, the research team investigated how videos impact people’s acceptance and intentions to help conserve sharks. They surveyed 335 people before and after watching a series of positive or negative videos on YouTube.
On the one hand, the positive videos showed either non-aggressive shark behavior or clips revealing some scientific information about them. On the other hand, the negative videos included clips of shark bites or attacks. The participants were asked to answer questions about their attitudes toward sharks, including acceptance and intentions, before and after watching the videos.
The results have shown that, after watching negative videos of sharks that revealed their violent behavior, study participants had more negative attitudes about sharks on average. Their acceptance decreased by 18% and they said they were more likely to oppose shark recovery efforts by 3%.
On the other hand, the participants who watched positive videos of sharks scored more positive attitudes about them by 70%, greater acceptance by 130%, and their intentions to support shark conservation scored 46%. Overall, the positive videos were more powerful than the negative ones, which have been revealed in participants' increases in average attitudes, acceptance, and intentions for conservation.
The biggest challenge that the authors have pointed out is that, despite the potential benefits of positive videos, many of the “negative” videos had more views, which dramatically affect people’s attitudes. The key solution could be helping spread the positive visual content through different global events, like “Shark Week” and other scientific and general events and occasions.
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