Time is TikToking: User perceptions of primate videos on one of the fastest growing social media platforms

Introduction: With billions of social media users, platforms have a powerful influence on user perceptions of and behaviour toward wild animals. TikTok is known for its large and young user base <-30 years old and focus on entertainment, but we currently have no knowledge of what primate content is posted, its popularity, and whether video characteristics negatively influence user perceptions of primates. Methods: A pilot study showed that searching for ‘monkey’ resulted in videos of monkeys, apes and strepsirrhines. I collected data on the number of hearts, views and account followers, video and account types, comment and video activity themes, genus, primate infant and human presence, human-primate proximity, primates in clothes, presence of pet primates and domestic pets, human-primate behaviour, video setting, context, and barrier presence from 1104 videos, using the search terms ‘monkey’ (n= 759) and ‘zoo monkey’ (n= 345). Results: Primate videos received millions of views and hearts, indicating that they are very popular. Almost all videos were entertainment focused. Setting (zoo vs. non-zoo) had a significant effect on video popularity, suggesting that primates in zoos were least enjoyable to watch compared to in non-zoo settings. Zoo primates provoked significantly fewer comments about wanting a primate pet than in non-zoo settings, suggesting that zoos make them appear more dangerous than non-zoo settings. When videos included written context promoting primate pet-keeping, users were significantly more interested in pet primates than videos without this context. Direct human-primate contact resulted in significantly more users wanting pet primates than videos showing humans within arm’s reach of primates, but not touching them. Videos including infants received significantly more comments referring to ‘cuteness’ and comments expressing a desire for a pet primate than videos without infants did. Discussion: To minimise the negative effects on user perceptions of primates, TikTok uploaders should educate users in written format and avoid posts featuring primate infants and direct human-primate contact. I propose a ‘positive input - positive output’ hypothesis, which addresses how posting entertaining conservation videos could increase content popularity and public awareness and thus improve pro-conservation behaviours by users online.