rationalskepticism.org

Belief in the Loch Ness Monster has often been described as a case of wish fulfillment, by people who think things would be much more exciting if there was some bizarre life form in the lake, as well as those who would really, really like to make lots money from the resultant tourism. However, disbelief in the Loch Ness Monster may also be a form of wish fulfillment. One of the proposed explanations for the Loch Ness Monster is that it may be a plesiosaur, a species of dinosaur long thought to be extinct. Many people as children saw the movie Jurassic Park, and there were many cases of them finding the movie to be quite terrifying. As such, it makes sense that some people, carrying that trauma through to their adult life, may well choose to adopt beliefs that allow them to avoid confronting the possibility that there might actually be big scary dinosaurs out in the world that may in fact eat them at some point. In fact, nonbelief in the Loch Ness Monster may simply be nothing more than a symptom of a more generalised dinophobia. All we can be sure of is that when someone claims not to believe in the Loch Ness Monster, it clearly isn't because they consider a few obviously faked photographs to be insufficient grounds for believing in the Loch Ness Monster; no, it is clearly because on some level the idea of the Loch Ness Monster existing terrifies them. Whether fear of dinosaurs, dislike of an unpleasant relative working in Scottish tourism, or something else, it is clear that people come to reject the existence of the Loch Ness Monster on emotional grounds, not through reason.