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"It ain't no unicorn": These researchers have interviewed 130 Bigfoot hunters
What prompts this community to spend time looking for a creature that likely doesn’t exist?
TL;DR
- Sociologists Jamie Lewis and Andrew Bartlett interviewed over 130 Bigfooters to understand their motivations and practices.
- The Bigfoot community is estimated to be in the thousands, with a significant portion of Americans believing Bigfoot exists.
- Bigfooters are described as predominantly white, male, rural, and often ex-military.
- Interviewees were initially wary of being caricatured but many were open about their experiences and data collection.
- The primary forms of evidence collected are witness testimonies and footprint analysis, with some also using camera traps and audio recorders.
- Bigfooting differs from mainstream science in its methods of knowledge production and testing, such as self-published books and YouTube channels instead of peer-reviewed papers.
- Researchers found Bigfooters to be pro-science but counter-establishment, collecting data and attempting analysis, though lacking academic discipline.
- The community includes different factions, such as 'apers' who believe Bigfoot is an unknown primate, and 'woo-woos' who see it as interdimensional.