Project Overview

The goal of this project is to assess charisma bias in the wildlife docuseries Our Planet. Charisma bias is a term used to describe one preferring cute, awe-inspiring species, rather than the less attractive ones. The significance of charisma bias is it tends to shed more light on charismatic species, causing uncharismatic species to get less attention. Consequently, uncharismatic species fail to receive resources like public knowledge and funding, which can help combat extinction. Not only this, but this lack of public knowledge correlates with many uncharismatic species' endangered status.

 Studies have shown that featuring endangered species in films can promote public knowledge, thus by featuring more uncharismatic species there's a good chance their numbers can be restored through media. However, limited studies have been done on charisma bias, specifically in wildlife documentaries. Therefore, I'll be assessing charisma bias' presence in the docuseries Our Planet, in order to see whether major wildlife documentaries are fairly featuring charismatic and uncharismatic species, or if charisma bias is being applied.