Description

A celebration of human idiosyncrasy and of our talent for building shared meaning and solidarity out of the strangest material TLS

Fans takes the reader on a journey through a constellation of fandoms and along the way demonstrates some fundamental truths about the human condition

Fascinating and thoughtprovoking Fans is a story of communities of what happens to us when we interact with people who share our passions The human brain is wired to reach out and while our groupish tendencies can bring much strife religious intolerance racism war etc they are also the source of some of our greatest satisfactions

Fandoms offer much of the pleasure of tribalism with little of the harm a feeling of belonging and of shared culture a sense of meaning and purpose improved mental wellbeing reassurance that our most outlandish convictions will be taken seriously and the freedom to try to emulate and dress like our hero

But Bond shows that despite these benefits the world of fandoms is not without its dark underside from the copycat effect fuelling mass shootings to the delusions that can accompany the parasocial relationships that fans feel they have with their heroes

In Fans Michael Bond draws on the work of social psychologists and anthropologists to understand how people behave in groups and why such groups have such a profound effect on human culture