Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring The Effects Of Individuals’ Perceived Prototypicality Within A Fandom, Keely Diebold

LSU Master's Theses

Passionate fandoms centered on popular film and television series can elicit large-scale positive fan activity. At the same time, however, negative consequences can arise as factions or subsets of members with varying opinions arise within fandoms. One possible explanation for this phenomenon is varied levels among fandom members of how prototypical they view themselves within the context of that fandom. Research on social groups, however, has historically looked exclusively at perceptions of others' prototypicality and not of the self. Drawing on theories of social identity (SIT) and self-categorization (SCT), this project serves to bridge this research gap by exploring to …