New research from the University of St Andrews has shown that those who claim to see the Loch Ness Monster are not influenced by traditional depictions of what she looks like.

Throughout history, people have drawn serpentine aquatic monsters that undulate vertically at the surface of the water with visible humps. Even today, Nessie memorabilia depicts the monster as having three humps.

Those who claim to have seen Nessie seldom report hoops or humps—such description only occurs in around 1.5% of Nessie reports, implying that witnesses are not influenced by all the souvenirs and postcard imagery.

This result goes against previous work which suggests witnesses are quite often influenced by media and other portrayals of monsters.

In the Nessie case, witnesses may not have seen a real monster, but these recent results do suggest that most witnesses do try to report what they experienced.