The Psychological Benefits of Believing in the Loch Ness Monster
Why we want to believe
If the Loch Ness monster is anything at all, new research argues, it’s probably just a really big eel.
A team of scientists analyzed the DNA found in hundreds of water samples collected from Scotland’s Loch Ness to piece together a picture of the lake’s animal life. The team, led by Neil Gemmell, a professor of anatomy at the University of Otago in New Zealand, announced this week that all that testing didn’t turn up anything to suggest a viable candidate for Nessie. No giant reptiles, no oversized sharks.
“The remaining theory that we cannot refute based on environmental DNA,” they wrote, “is that what people are seeing is a very large eel.”
Scientifically, this is a reasonable statement. Personally, it’s a bummer.
Let’s get the obvious out of the way: The Loch Ness Monster is overwhelmingly likely to be nothing but a 1,500-year-old legend, propelled by doctored photos and active imaginations. But also: Nessie is a delightful creation of human imagination — a mythical creature in a Scottish lake. And entertaining the truly implausible can be one of the purest pleasures we have.
Yes, giving credence to the far-fetched can be damaging, or even dangerous, if it leads you…
