New research from the University of St Andrews suggests that those who claim to have seen the Loch Ness Monster were not influenced by the stereotypical images found on postcards and in the media.
Throughout history, the Loch Ness Monster – an eerie mythical beast believed to inhabit Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands (one of the UK's biggest lakes) – has been typically depicted as an aquatic monster with visible humps. Images of a humped – or hooped – creature are the most prevalent even today.
But those who claim to have seen Nessie first-hand rarely report the presence of hoops or humps. While the image proliferates among 25-32 per cent of postcards, only 1.5 per cent of witnesses claim to see a similar creature – suggesting that they’ve not been influenced by souvenir and popular culture imagery.
These findings challenge previous work that has suggested that witnesses are often influenced by the media’s portrayal of monsters.
"Scholars often assume that monsters are generated by cultural expectations, but it is always useful to test obvious hypotheses,” says Dr Paxton, from the University’s Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling (CREEM).
“In this case it really seems witnesses do not generally report the impossible, even though the hooped monster is a common portrayal of Nessie.”
By “impossible”, Paxton is referring to the inefficient swimming style of the hooped sea monster. “No real animals would swim this way at the surface,” researchers at the University of St Andrews state.
This study by Dr Charles Paxton of the University of St Andrews and Adrian Shine of the Loch Ness Centre was published in the history of science journal Endeavour under the title: “Hoops, loops and eyewitness reliability: a history of biologically impossible aquatic monsters”.
Top image credit: University of St Andrews
