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By: Matthew Lekatis, working individually

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This video is a CBS News story on a group of scientists who believe they have proof of the fact that Bigfoot exists. These scientists explain their theories on what this creature is and also explain that there are thousands just in the United States alone.
Connections:
This video connects to the Appeal to Authority red flag as the Sasquatch Genome Project is being led by a scientist named Dr. Melba Ketchum who is also the one providing the interviewer with the information and is explaining how it is a serious study. Dr. Melba Ketchum also uses the critical thinking process as she evaluates the evidence that the DNA is of a human and selects an alternative that they believe the sasquatch is of a human hybrid. Ideological Support is also used in this video as they have only gained potential evidence on one case of Bigfoot but go on to say that they believe that there are thousands out there.

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A group of scientists gathered in Dallas to reveal new HD video that they say is proof the legendary creature Bigfoot exists. Sharrie Williams reports.

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This video is from abcNEWS and shows a clip of a possible Bigfoot sighting in Utah. The clip shows a shadowy creature hidden behind a set of trees. The figure then stands up and that is when the camera person seems to get up and run which is when the clip ends.
Connection:
This video connects to the reason for belief Patternicity as the figure in the clip can barely be seen other than the fact that it is somewhat large. Even though there is no concrete proof that this is a sasquatch, it is already being discussed by many that this is indeed Bigfoot. This also connects to the Psuedoscience Watchlist item results can't be reproduced or verified because nothing is legible in the video. No one will be able to figure out what is in the video and there is no way to verify the accuracy of the info showed. Lastly, this also connects to the reason for belief Unexplained because although there is no explanation for what was shown in the video, it is already being surfaced on the internet as a Bigfoot video.

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Video Bigfoot Sighting: New Video Starts Debate

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The video, shot by hikers in Utah, appears to show a creature hidden by trees.

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This video is an interview with a sasquatch researcher named Todd Standing. Standing explains that a Bigfoot discovery will happen in the next 4 years and shows off his own footage and DNA of Bigfoot.
Connections:
This video is connected to the red flag Red Herring because Standing explains in his interview how he has evidence of a sasquatch and afterwards projects onto Fish and Wildlife saying that they need to do their job. This also connects to the Psuedoscience Watchlist item results can't be reproduced or verified because although Standing shows his own photos of what he claims to be Bigfoot, there is no third party source or other witnesses to testify for him. The reason for belief Emotional Connection can also be applied here because Standing truely believes this creature exists and therefore even without concrete proof or verified evidence he will still be an advocate for sasquatch research and communicate that to others.

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Zed Files: Sasquatch researcher believes Bigfoot discovery will happen "in the next 4 years"

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This article goes into detail on the elusive bigfoot and the many theories behind the creature. The author questions why after so long and with the technological advancements happening that there is no solid proof of bigfoot. This article also includes interviews with people who say they have had first hand experiences with a sasquatch and what their experiences were like.
Connection:
The article connects to the reason for belief Unexplained because when Kathy Strain was asked about her experiences with Bigfoot she explained that she had witnessed a sasquatch on three seperate occasions and when filming them the camera was on her the whole time. All interviews follow the same path that they have seen bigfoot but don't have proof to follow their claims. The author uses the critical thinking process and the use of skepticism when debunking a claim that there were Bigfoot tracks, later on concluded to be a set of moose tracks. The article also connects to Ideological support because for many years conspiracy theorists and others alike have have continued to believe in Bigfoot and the stories revolving it.

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Bigfoot in Canada: Inside the hunt for proof — or at least a good photo - National | Globalnews.ca

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Cameras are better than ever, but Bigfoot hunters are still struggling to get a good photo of what they believe is real.

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This article tries to find the answer of why so many people still want to believe in Bigfoot. The author references important pieces of Bigfoot history and current media also to find the appeal of finding something that potentially does not exist. The author goes into detail on Bigfoots timeline of events leading up to where it is at now.
Connections:
This article explains the reasons for belief like Ideology as the author recites what people find enjoyable when looking for Bigfoot, for instance, searching for Bigfoot in the forest is to taste the freedom and become one with nature. The author uses the critical thinking process to recognize biases in many peoples claims as they already have a personal enjoyment in the process of finding Bigfoot so claiming that the creature is real is a blanket statement.

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Sixty years ago this fall, Bigfoot first stepped into the public consciousness. "Giant footprints puzzle residents," a headline in the Humboldt Times announced. The small Northern California newspaper reported that a road construction crew had discovered humanlike footprints that were a massive 16 inches long. The paper was the first to give the mysterious animal that made the prints its memorable moniker-"Bigfoot"-and the creature has been stomping through the American imagination ever since.

Today, the legendary beast seems to be everywhere: You will find Bigfoot looking awfully cute this year in two children's films: The Son of Bigfoot and Smallfoot. Animal Planet recently aired the finale of its popular series "Finding Bigfoot," which lasted 11 seasons despite never making good on the promise of its title. And the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization lists at least one report from every state, except Hawaii, over the past two decades. The most recent sighting, in June 2018, was by a woman in Florida who reported a creature that looked like "a large pile of soggy grass." Other evidence in the database includes supposed Bigfoot scat, nests and noises. If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, it may not make a sound-but it seems someone will report that a Bigfoot knocked it over.

"Interest in the existence of the creature is at an all-time high," the paleontologist Darren Naish has observed, even though "there's nothing even close to compelling as goes the evidence."

Of course, Bigfoot is not the first fabled hominid to roam North America. Sasquatches long populated the mythologies of American Indian tribes in the Pacific Northwest, but those 1958 footprints transformed the myth into a media sensation. The tracks were planted near Bluff Creek in Northern California by a man named Ray Wallace-but his prank was not revealed until his death in 2002, when his children said it had all been "just a joke."

By that point, more important evidence had entered the Bigfoot file. In 1967, Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin filmed a few seconds of a hairy creature walking on two legs by the same Bluff Creek-the most famous and contested piece of Bigfoot "evidence" to this day. That the Patterson-Gimlin film was created in the same place that Wallace had staged his hoax is just one reason to doubt its authenticity. Skeptics say the animal was a man in costume, while believers argue that the creature's movements and body proportions cannot possibly have been human. The debate has been raging for half a century, which raises a question of its own. "How is it that the evidence has not gotten any better despite the exponential increase in the quantity and quality of cameras?" asks Benjamin Radford, a research fellow with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.

Still the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence either. Wild animals don't exactly mug for photos, and the planet's ever-shrinking forests still regularly unpack surprises, such as the saola, an untamed cousin of the cow that was discovered by scientists in Vietnam in 1992. But the saola did not have legions of amateurs hunting it with cameras. With or without hard evidence, many people clearly want to believe in Bigfoot. Which suggests we are dealing more with human imagination than human evolution.

Naish has written that Bigfoot is the modern American "manifestation of a human-wide cultural concept, not a zoological reality." It has much in common with the Australian yowie and the Himalayan yeti: an upright posture, shaggy hair and, of course, large feet. As so-called wild men, they hold a crude mirror up to our own species: What might Homo sapiens be like if civilization had not removed it from nature?

Fact or Folklore
Can you tell the real animals from the fake ones? Hover over each animal to reveal if it is fact or folklore. (Illustration by Iris Gottlieb) Illustrations by Iris Gottlieb
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Some people see these cryptohominids as symbols of pure freedom, living by instinct and foiling every effort to pin them down. To search for Bigfoot in the forest is to taste that freedom. On the trail, you become extra-attuned to nature: the smell of scat, the sounds of breaking branches, the curious impressions in the dirt. As long as there are wild places in America, Bigfoot remains a possibility that, to its most ardent proponents, cannot be disproved.

The hunt for Bigfoot emulates an earlier mode of discovery, when new knowledge was not the product of advanced degrees and expensive machinery but rather curiosity, bravery, patience and survival. In the 19th century, the American landscape revealed its majesties to ordinary settlers pushing westward into territory unmapped by Europeans. To track Bigfoot today is to channel that frontier spirit (as well as to appropriate Native American traditions).

Bigfoot also embodies other less romantic but no less enduring American traits, like gullibility and a hunger for attention. "There are so many fake videos," says Loren Coleman, the founder of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine. The problem has grown worse with social media, where viral hoaxes, like drone footage of a supposed Bigfoot in a clearing in Idaho, can rack up millions of views. Coleman, for his part, believes there is evidence for Bigfoot's existence, but he and his like-minded peers find it difficult to focus attention on this material amid the growing number of obvious shams. "Technology has ruined the old cryptozoology," Coleman says.

His complaint echoes concerns in more mainstream American life, where technologies that promised to build consensus have, in fact, made the truth more difficult than ever to discern. On the internet, Bigfoot has found a habitat much more hospitable than North American forests. It turns out that Bigfoot does not need to exist in order to live forever.

The Iceman Cameth
The amazing story of the infamous frozen "missing link" from Minnesota-and the dogged scientist hot on its trail.

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Why Do So Many People Still Want to Believe in Bigfoot?

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The appeal of the mythical, wild man holds strong

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This article goes into detail about how a scientist proved that Bigfoot is real based off of a DNA diagnostic. A statement published by DNA diagnostics Inc. reported that they had concluded a study which proves the existnece of Bigfoot. The author of the article explains the events after this study was published and how it disproves their work.
Connection:
This article connects to the red flag Appeal to Authority because the group of people who formed the report that Bigfoot is real was led by a PhD and founder of the incorporation. By showing that this report had involvment from a PhD, gives off the feeling that what they are saying is true. The Critial thinking process is used in this article also as a science reporter evaluated the evidence and explained that the findings from the study was being broadcasted to the public before it was peer-reviewed. This article also connects to the Pseudoscience Watchlist item of results can't be reproduced or verified because of the fact that the these findings were not reviewed and that there is no data for anyone to examine.

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A Texas scientist purports to have sequenced Sasquatch DNA.

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This picture is what is considered to be the iconic photo of Bigfoot. This still was taken from the Patterson-Gilmin film which allegedly shows a Bigfoot looking towards the camera. This is one of the oldest pieces of media that shows the elusive being and is still considered proof of Bigfoots existence by some.
Connection:
This picture connects to the red flag Appeal to Authority because the creator of the film and iconic photo endorses the fact that Bigfoot exists and has provided his alleged proof. This photo alone is why many Bigfoot theorists exist to this day and is what drives a lot of people into believing so. The reason for belief Simplicity can also be applied here as the easy answer to this image would be that this is Bigfoot, however the answer to this question could be much different like it being a person in a suit.

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This is a picture of the Willow Creek-China Flat Museum which is home to the Bigfoot collection. Part of this museum is dedicated to Bigfoot history and sightings. There are Bigfoot sighting maps, foot print casts, and documents all present here and is a welcome place to locals and tourists.
Connections:
This picture connects to the Pseudoscience Watchlist item money is often involved because this museum being a home for a Bigfoot collection is also a home for a shop with Bigfoot souvenirs and items for sale. This museum is using the tale of Bigfoot to try and earn a profit from people who believe in the creature and tourists visiting the area. This picture also connects to Emotional Connection because the museum is tailored to people who believe in Bigfoot and advertise the building as such. The museum uses this idea to further try and make people believe in the tales of Bigfoot by providing a professional area dedicated to the history of an unidentified creature.

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This is a pictrure of the Bigfoot Discovery Expedition truck. This image shows guests as they are being driven through a field and being advertised that they are on the hunt for Bigfoot. The Bigfoot Discovery Expedition is a tour of land where you'll be briefed on Bigfoot's history and might have the chance to see one for yourself.
Connection:
This picture connects to the Psuedoscience Watchlist item money is often involved because the Bigfoot Discovery Expedition is a paid tour and experience. Advertised as a chance to see Bigfoot, this company is exploiting a potentially non-existent creature for monetary gain and is also exploiting its customers for most likely false advertising. This also connects to Emotional Connection because many people believe in Bigfoots existence because of its history and many stories and the company behind this experience knows this and is using it to their benefit.

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1. What I learned that most surprised me about this topic was that Bigfoot research and the people that advocate for its existence is a very large number of people. I think that believing in something even though you do not know it exists is a normal and fine thing to do as long as it is harmless, so doing all of this research and finding people who truely believe Bigfoot is out there was very interesting to me and seeing their perspective was fun.
2. I have always had an interested in the unexplained and Bigfoot has always been a stand out for me as I always considered it to be a comedic tale. I've watched previous shows that cover Bigfoot and even though they never find anything, its enjoyable to watch because of the way they portray it.
3. The research I found most interesting was the different tourist traps like the museum and Bigfoot Expedition. Overall, the two are harmless fun that take advantage of a popular myth, but its interesting to see the different perspectives in monetizing it.
4. I will most likely remember the interview with Todd Standing because he almost seemed angry at the fact that there has been no advancements in Bigfoot research. The point in the video where he says that he will take anyone out and show you a Bigfoot really interested me because it seems like he is really confident in the fact that Bigfoot exists.
5. I believe that Appeal to Authority is the most harmful pseudoscience belief. I believe this because I personally have witnessed first hand someone being scammed by a celebrities endorsement as well as a "doctor" selling their product that will cure any issues. These people are allowed to stay and use their voice to advertise to helpless people their useless products and get away with it and it is sad to see. I belive that Mystical Energy is the least harmful because people having beliefs in crystals, meditating, or other types of spiritual healing are usually harmless and if they believe themselves that it is helping then who am I to disagree with them.
6. I would pass on the knowledge of not everything you see or hear on the internet is true. Going back on the Appeal to Authority red flag, its hard to persuade someone that what they are seeing is not true especially if its being said by their favourite celebrity or other public figure. Passing on my knowledge of the red flags and how harmful they can actually be is what I would do.