It was the image that released a cultural icon. In 1967, in the Northern California woods, a 7-foot-tall, ape-like animal covered in black fur and strolling upright was caught on electronic camera, at one point reversing to look directly down the lens. The image is constantly copied in pop culture– it’s even end up being an emoji. What was it? A scam? A bear? Or a real-life example of a strange types called the Bigfoot?

The movie has actually been evaluated and re-analysed numerous times. The majority of individuals think it was some sort of scam, there are some who argue that it’s never ever been definitively unmasked. One group of individuals, called Bigfooters, is so interested that they have actually required to the forests of Washington, California, Oregon, Ohio, Florida, and beyond to try to find proof of the legendary animal.

Why? That’s what sociologists Jamie Lewis and Andrew Bartlett wished to discover. They were itching to comprehend what triggers this neighborhood to invest important time and resources searching for a monster that is extremely not likely to even exist. Throughout lockdown, Lewis began speaking with more than 130 Bigfooters (and a couple of academics) about their views, experiences, and practices, culminating in the duo’s current book “Bigfooters and Scientific Inquiry: On the Borderlands of Legitimate Science.”

Here, we speak with them about their scholastic examination.

What was it about the Bigfoot neighborhood that you discovered so appealing?

Lewis: It began when I was enjoying either the Discovery Channel or Animal Planet and a program called Finding Bigfoot was marketed. I was truly eager to understand why this program was being set up on what definitely at the time was a nominally severe and sober nature channel. The preliminary strategy was to do an analysis of these tv programs, however we felt that wasn’t enough. It was lockdown and my other half was pregnant and in bed a lot with illness, so I required to fill my time.

Bartlett: One of the important things that I dealt with when Jamie and I shared a workplace in Cardiff was a sociological research study of fringe physicists. These are individuals mainly beyond scholastic organizations attempting to do science. I was speaking with these individuals, going to their conferences. Which led fairly efficiently into Bigfoot, however it was Jamie’s interest in Bigfoot that brought me to this field.

How huge is this neighborhood?

Lewis: It’s extremely tough to put a number on it. There is definitely a divide in between what are called “apers,” who think that Bigfoot is simply a primate unidentified to science, and those that are maybe more derogatorily called “woo-woos,” who think that Bigfoot is some sort of interdimensional visitor, an alien of sort. We’re talking in the countless individuals. There are a couple of hundred actually major individuals of which I most likely spoke with at least half.

Lots of people back them. A YouGov study carried out as just recently as November 2025, recommended that as numerous as one quarter of Americans think that Bigfoot either certainly or most likely exists.

Were the interviewees suspicious of your objectives?

Lewis: I believe there was certainly a concern that they would be caricatured. And I was frequently asked, “Do I think in Bigfoot?” I had a basic response that Andy and I settled on, which was that mainstream, institutional science states there is definitely no engaging proof that Bigfoot exists. We have no factor to dissent with that agreement. As sociologists what does exist is a neighborhood (or neighborhoods) of Bigfooting, and that’s what interests us.