Apparently, the general public finds us a bit off
Sorry, birdwatchers: People think you’re creepy
By Karin Brulliard <http://www.washingtonpost.com/people/karin-brulliard> April
13 at 12:39 PM
<karin.brulliard@xxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=Reader%20feedback%20for%20%27Sorry,%20birdwatchers:%20People%20think%20you%E2%80%99re%20creepy%27>
(Vernon Ogrodnek/The Press of Atlantic City via AP)
Here’s what most American birdwatchers are, according to a 2013 government
study
<http://www.fws.gov/southeast/economicImpact/pdf/2011-BirdingReport--FINAL.pdf>:
White, older than 45, fairly well-off and pretty highly educated.
Here’s what many people *think* birdwatchers are: Creepy.
That’s according to a recent study
<https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299506298_On_the_Nature_of_Creepiness>
that says
it is the first “empirical study of ‘creepiness.’ ” Led by psychology
professor Frank McAndrew at Illinois’s Knox College, the study set out
to introduce “a theoretical perspective on the common psychological
experience of feeling “creeped out,” and to figure out what makes us think
other people are creepy.
*[The surprising reason Hollywood gets birds all wrong
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2016/03/14/the-surprising-reason-hollywood-gets-birds-all-wrong/>]*
The conclusion — based on a survey of 1,341 people, most of whom were
female and American — is that feeling creeped out is an evolved response to
the ambiguity of a possible threat, which helps us to remain vigilant.
As a public service to everyone who wants to avoid being viewed as creepy,
we’ll go over some of the other highlights before we get to birdwatching.
About 95 percent of respondents thought creepy people are much more likely
to be male, and female respondents were more likely to perceive a sexual
threat from creeps. Characteristics widely perceived as creepy include
greasy hair, being extremely thin and watching people before interacting
with them.
Jobs to avoid if you don’t want to seem creepy: Clown, taxidermist, sex
shop owner and funeral director. On this chart, professions with a higher
mean were rated as more creepy. A score of 5 would signal the utmost in
creepiness.
[image: (New Ideas in Psychology)]
(New Ideas in Psychology)
But this blog is called Animalia
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/>, so now we’ll turn to
things involving creatures. In another section, survey respondents were
asked to list two hobbies that are creepy. By far, “collecting things” took
top honors, with special mentions for collecting insects and reptiles.
And: “Bird watchers were considered creepy by many as well.”
The study offers no details about why. But it turns out that this is
probably not news to birdwatchers, and it seems to be rooted in a key
birding tool: Binoculars.
In 2014, the blogger behind Becca Birdy Bird
<http://thebirdybird.blogspot.com/> wrote an entire post
<http://thebirdybird.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-creepy-side-of-bird-watching.html>
about
it. It was titled “The Creepy Side of Birdwatching.”
“For backyard birding, one runs the risk of neighbors thinking you are a
pervert of some type trying to look in their windows with your binoculars,”
she wrote. She suggested that birders tell neighbors “the binoculars are
not pointing at [anyone’s] windows,” or invite them to join in the fun.
“They will either grow bored and leave or get hooked,” she wrote. “Either
way, you’ll benefit and no longer have to deal with negative gossip.”
Twitter is full of anecdotal evidence about the existence of a
birdwatching-creepiness nexus.
Someone on YouTube even made a video about it, to the tune of the 1984
Rockwell hit “Somebody’s Watching Me.”
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And someone else tried to generate a meme
<https://memegenerator.net/instance/57316405>:
[image: birdwatchmeme]
David. J. Ringer, the National Audubon Society’s chief network officer,
took the study’s conclusions in stride.
“If you’re already a birder, maybe don’t point your binoculars at other
people’s houses, stop your car in the middle of the road, or yell
“Bushtit!” during an otherwise civil dinner conversation,” Ringer told the
Post in an e-mail. “And if you’re not a birder yet, take a good long look
at a cardinal, ahummingbird
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.hummingbirdsathome.org_&d=CwMFAg&c=RAhzPLrCAq19eJdrcQiUVEwFYoMRqGDAXQ_puw5tYjg&r=5Qju6q1fsVJYeuLyyLmT6ghC6U2SqPSroMnwEOICoGQ&m=7f9o58jS52QovJujuVoSTTGw7qPgNvONzwDv314ECRQ&s=rf1wafak_M3XxurAeoTfmDJjv2dQVxyn02WDDpT6I5o&e=>,
or an eagle cam
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__eagles.aswp.org_&d=CwMFAg&c=RAhzPLrCAq19eJdrcQiUVEwFYoMRqGDAXQ_puw5tYjg&r=5Qju6q1fsVJYeuLyyLmT6ghC6U2SqPSroMnwEOICoGQ&m=7f9o58jS52QovJujuVoSTTGw7qPgNvONzwDv314ECRQ&s=k4ws4L7Pei-GyXCXr2kaqMSYzeTMXpxYwttSdjwp1YU&e=>
and
see what happens. You might get hooked — just remember to keep it family-
and bird-friendly.”
Andrew Melnykovych
Louisville KY
