Risk perception refers to the way people judge danger using feelings, stories, and mental shortcuts instead of only statistics.

Under this lens, sharks often become what researchers call dread risks – events that feel uncontrollable, deadly, and unforgettable.

Decades of shark attack headlines and the legacy of the film Jaws have amplified that sense of dread, especially when incidents are presented as intentional attacks.

Research on shark stories and public opinion links higher fear to more support for lethal control policies such as culls or nets near beaches.

In the new survey, people who rated sharks as very risky tended to choose charged words like killer, ferocious, and danger. Those who saw sharks as lower risk were more likely to pick gentler terms such as cute, misunderstood, or sea.