Why do people overrate/underrate animals?

[An Goldish Jade]

so, why do animals get underrated/overrated?
my self have a few possible explanations for it
1-inaccurate documentaries, not all documentaries are accurate, for example, titanoboa in Titanoboa: Monster Snake, liopleurodon in walking with dinosaurus, they give inaccurate infomations about certain animals, which makes them overrated or underrated, the myth surrounding lions mane is also promoted by lion vs tiger animal face off, those are examples of how bad inaccurate docunmentries are.
2-movies, movies like King Kong are not to be taken seriously, so is Jurassic park, but some people would not do that, after watching those would view gorillas like how it was depicted in king kong, or spinosaurus can easily destroy tryannosaurus.
3-outdated information and stereotypes-those are-dinosaurs are stupid, gorillas have brutal force, the "agility" of tigers and other big cats, those are promoted a lot in popular cultures, and outdated/inaccurate info like Spinosaurus weight 20tonnes, T.rex is a scavenger are also not good information. 
4-lack of knowledge, not every one understand why intelligence is mostly useless in a fight, or why speed do not matter much in fights.

[Deleted]

Number 4 sums it up.

[creature386]

How could you forget about fanboyism (they were once the only topic in the overrated/underrated animals thread on Carnivora)?

[An Goldish Jade]

well, arent fanboys mostly are intentionally trolling, instead of actually overestimating their animals? like those well known carnivora fanboys do.

[creature386]

Some are trolling, but there are enough cases of genuine fanboyism (along with some Poes).

[An Goldish Jade]

can you show a few examples of genuine fanboyism please.

[creature386]

I have no link at the moment, but the YouTube user TopPhilosopher1 sounded fnboyish and serious. And even some of the less articulate fanboys may still be serious, but simply too immature to formulate a coherent argumentation.

[An Goldish Jade]

well, I just remembered some fanboys on Carnviora Forum that actually try seriously to defend their animals on carnivora forum, so I get what you mean-there are biased fanboys who try to make themselves look like polite experts.

[elosha11]

Like any other human endeavor, people have particular affinities to animals for a myriad of reasons. Being a biased fanboy and/or trolling are definitely high up there. Even very knowledgeable posters will bring into play their inherent bias for or against different species. You would think people who are more knowledgeable about animal tendencies, fighting abilities, behavior, etc. would generally be able to think more objectively, but sadly this is often not the case.

For more casual observers, certainly ignorance, misinformation, and other factors crop up more than intentional fanboyism. I myself have to sometimes take a step back and ask myself am I "favoring" a particular animal in a fight because of hard, cold evidence (or lack thereof) or because deep down I want animal A to win to satisfy some inclination or assumption I make toward that species or its opponent.

[An Goldish Jade]

well, it is inevitable for people to have a bias on their favorite animals, but intentionally being fan-boyish or trolling and case of misinformation can be hard to distinct from each, because at many times, misinformed ones can overrate a animal as much as those that trolls intentionally, and at some cases, because some do not speak English as first language, they can seem like they are trolling, but they are not.
and it is fairly troublesome if people take their like for a certain animal too seriously, this cause bias, they should just accept that their favorite animal is not immortal.

[dinosauria101]

I think it's a mixture of bias, misinformation, and popular opinion.