'I've found my people': Why being a fan can be transformative

Michelle D’urbano

EVER since the aboriginal days of fashionable culture, fans person been saddled with a dubious reputation. Condemned arsenic irrational oregon aberrant, their behaviour is often considered a menace to the societal bid oregon a benignant of intelligence illness. The New Statesman‘s appraisal of Beatles fans successful 1964 arsenic “the slightest fortunate of their generation, the dull, the idle, the failures” has been levelled successful assorted forms astatine young popular fans galore times since. We look to find it hard to spot fans, peculiarly erstwhile they vent their passions together.

But this depiction doesn’t tally with societal psychologists‘ position connected instrumentality culture. Viewed from the …