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Impact on species’ online attention when named after celebrities

Celebrities can generate substantial attention. So, what happens when species are named after them? Do these species receive more online attention? This question was explored by WildCRU’s Katie Blake and Diogo Verissimo, alongside colleagues Sean Anderson and Adam Gleave.

Using Wikipedia page view data for over 4,000 species pairs, the authors compared whether species receive more page views per day when named after celebrities than when not. This effect was studied across six taxonomic groups (amphibians, birds, invertebrates, fish, mammals, and reptiles), and for increasing levels of celebrity salience.

Overall, there was a high probability (0.96-0.98) that species receive more attention on Wikipedia when named after celebrities. Plus, the effect was strongest for invertebrates, followed by amphibians, reptiles, fish, mammals, then birds. These finding could therefore be of particular significance for taxa generally considered less charismatic than others.

The authors discuss the potential implications of these findings for conservation. The responsible use of eponyms more generally is also addressed, give recent debates on this topic.

Blake, K., Anderson, S., Gleave, A., & Veríssimo, D. (2023). Impact on species’ online attention when named after celebrities. Conservation Biology. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.14184.