Impact on species' online attention when named after celebrities

Journal article

Celebrities can generate substantial attention and influence public interest in species. Using a large-scale examination of publicly available data, we assessed whether species across 6 taxonomic groups received more page views on Wikipedia when the species was named after a celebrity than when it was not. We conducted our analysis for 4 increasingly strict thresholds of how many average daily Wikipedia page views a celebrity had (1, 10, 100, or 1000 views). Overall, we found a high probability (0.96–0.98) that species named after celebrities had more page views than their closest relatives that were not named after celebrities, irrespective of the celebrity threshold. The multiplicative effect on species’ page views was larger but more uncertain as celebrity page-view thresholds increased. The range for thresholds of 1 to 1000 was 1.08 (95% credible interval [CI] 1.00–1.18) to 1.76 (95% CI 0.96–2.80), respectively. The hierarchical estimates for the taxa tended to be positive. The strongest effects were for invertebrates, followed by amphibians, reptiles, fish, and mammals, whereas the weakest effect was for birds at lower page-view thresholds. Our results suggest that naming species after celebrities could be particularly significant for those belonging to taxonomic groups that are generally less popular than others (e.g., invertebrates). Celebrities may further influence the effectiveness of this marketing strategy, depending on their likability and connection to the species named after them. Eponyms may serve as a reminder of the disproportionate power dynamics between populations and some namesakes’ untenable actions. However, they also provide an opportunity to recognize remarkable individuals and promote equity, inclusivity, and diversity in taxonomic practice. We encourage taxonomists to examine whether naming threatened species after celebrities could affect conservation support, especially for species that are otherwise typically overlooked by the public.

Authors: Blake, K; Anderson, SC; Gleave, A; Veríssimo, D

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Wiley
• Journal: Conservation Biology
• Volume: 38
• Issue: 2
• Article number: e14184
• Place of publication: United States
• Publication date: 2023-12-18
• Acceptance date: 2023-08-30
• DOI: 10.1111/cobi.14184
• EISSN: 1523-1739
• ISSN: 0888-8892
• Pmid: 37700661
• Language: English
• Keywords: biodiversity; taxonomy; animals; conservation marketing; culturomics