Are we finally over the “Jaws effect”?

The films Jaws has terrorized moviegoers since its theatrical release 50 years ago. Today, the reputational damage that the horror film inflicted on real sharks may be starting to fade.

In several studies of public perception of sharks over the past decade, participants tended to report moderate to high levels of fear, often associating sharks with words like “blood” and “death.” This highlights a common misconception, given that shark attacks on people are extremely rare worldwide. But a new paper paints a more complex picture of changing human 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 participants to describe sharks using just three words. The most common answers were “teeth,” “ocean,” and “predator.”

Read more: »The murmur of sharks»

The researchers used various techniques to analyze the emotional motivation behind more than 1,000 submitted words. For example, the team divided words into categories, such as shark conservation and benefits to humans, which they labeled as positive, neutral, or negative. The majority of words (67.5%) belonged to neutral categories. Neutral terms included “teeth,” “ocean,” and “surf.” Meanwhile, 17.5 percent were considered positive, such as “majestic” and “cute”, and 15.3 percent were considered negative, including “blood” and “killer”.

The researchers also analyzed the words through a sentiment analysis algorithm, which linked about 30% of them to fear, with the second most common emotion, joy, being linked to about 17% of all words submitted.

“The findings highlight that public perception of sharks is more nuanced than the stereotypical narrative of a ‘menacing predator’ often seen in the media,” Brianna Le Busque, study co-author and environmental scientist at the University of South Australia, said in a statement.

This document nevertheless has limitations. This was a relatively small sample and the majority of participants were women in their 20s.

The short text responses examined in this study could offer a more practical alternative to interviews commonly used to gather public opinion on wildlife and conservation, the authors noted. These methods can be time-consuming for researchers and participants and can be costly.

Scientists continue to refine their understanding of how people feel about sharks, and similar work across all kinds of species lacks standardized measurements. But tracking this information is crucial because public opinion supports conservation policies and unpopular efforts can fail or backfire.

This work is particularly urgent regarding sharks. They have long been neglected in conservation, and more than 37% of shark and ray species are threatened with extinction, largely due to overfishing. But recently, our finned friends received some good news: More than 100 governments voted to protect shark and ray species whose populations are declining, perhaps another sign of goodwill toward these once-maligned creatures.

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Main image: Hermanus Backpackers / Wikimedia Commons

• Molly Glick

  Published on December 5, 2025

  Molly Glick is the newsletter editor of Nautilus.