Jaws, Squid Games and Katniss Everdeen changed the world

The shows we watch not only affect how we feel — they can also have an effect on everything from the economy to geopolitics. It’s a topic explored by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Walter Hickey in his new book, “You Are What You Watch — How Movies and TV Affect Everything.”

Case in point: The huge surge in archery lessons among women and girls, inspired by Katniss Everdeen’s bow-and-arrow skills in the 2014 movie “The Hunger Games.”

Another prime example is the fact that after the success of “Jaws” in 1975, the shark population in the waters off the northeast United States decreased by about 50% as testosterone-fueled trophy hunters took to the sea.

Across the generations, our viewing habits seep into our everyday lives — and it starts when we’re young, when the influence of characters like superheroes prove pivotal. 

Hickey cites one 2017 research study, wherein 180 children were given a boring, repetitive task to do. Out of that group, a select few were given the option of dressing as Batman while doing it.

The result? The kids dressed as the caped crusader outperformed the rest, working harder, staying more focused.

The power of movies can even transform the financial fortunes of a country. 

According to Netflix, its hugely successful series “Squid Games” added $1.9 billion to South Korea’s economy.

“Even the white slip-on Vans worn by the characters in the death matches saw sales spike 7,800% in the weeks after the show premiered,” writes Hickey.

Meanwhile, in Japan, both Anime and Manga cartoons have not only helped boost the country’s “soft power” around the world, they’ve also played a pivotal role in revitalizing the nation’s flagging economy. Sixty-percent of global animation now comes from Japan.

While Japanese is a language spoken in just one country, it’s now one of the most popular languages for people to learn; there were only 130,000 people studying Japanese in 1979, a number that had boomed to nearly 4 million by 2009.

“The fact that making art and telling stories has power isn’t shocking in the slightest,” Hickey writes, “but it illustrates how the stories we tell each other reflect the core of what we are as a society and our very accomplishment and ambition as a species.”