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Study examines fans of 'Game of Thrones' characters:
If you count yourself among those who lose themselves in the lives of fictional characters, scientists now have a better idea of how that happens.
Researchers found that the more immersed people tend to get into "becoming" a fictional character, the more they use the same part of the brain to think about the character as they do to think about themselves.
"When they think about a favorite fictional character, it appears similar in one part of the brain as when they are thinking about themselves," said Timothy Broom, lead author of the study and doctoral student in psychology at The Ohio State University.
The study was published online recently in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.
The study involved scanning the brains of 19 self-described fans of the HBO series "Game of Thrones" while they thought about themselves, nine of their friends and nine characters from the series. (The characters were Bronn, Catelyn Stark, Cersei Lannister, Davos Seaworth, Jaime Lannister, Jon Snow, Petyr Baelish, Sandor Clegane and Ygritte.)
Participants reported which "Game of Thrones" character they felt closest to and liked the most.
[...] The findings help explain how fiction can have such a big impact on some people, said Dylan Wanger, co-author of the study and assistant professor of psychology at Ohio State.
[Story Source]: The Ohio State University
[Journal Reference]: Oxford University Press
Have you experienced this while immersed in playing games ? If yes, which fictional character do you identify with and why ?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 16 2021, @04:08PM (15 children)
I sometimes try to imagine what it would be like to be Runaway or the other douchebag MightyMouse or whatever he's called. Why? Because it's interesting to see the world from the perspective of someone sucking dicks 24/7.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 16 2021, @05:24PM (1 child)
Sometimes I think of being a paid troll/shill/bot on the social webs. Then I wake up from the nightmare and fell much better that I'm back to reality and just my normal decent self.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 17 2021, @02:21PM
If that tiresome reply isn't just pathetic, I'd honestly like to know how to get paid for posting shit on the internet. Who do I contact?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Tork on Tuesday March 16 2021, @06:53PM (5 children)
Hounding him- Not cool.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 16 2021, @10:40PM (4 children)
And I'm sick of people pushing fascist propaganda on SN! Got any ideas how we can solve both problems?
(Score: 2) by Tork on Tuesday March 16 2021, @11:46PM (2 children)
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 17 2021, @02:45AM (1 child)
The republicans and far right claim Antofagasta exists as an organization. Maybe we should found such an organization. After all, being anti-fascist is hardly an insult - certainly better than being pro-fascist.
Seriously, I think most right-wingers think being anti-fascist is a bad thing. Their actions are certainly pro-fascist.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 17 2021, @02:35PM
Hint: antifa is fascist.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 17 2021, @02:24PM
Uhm, mod based on content not names?
(Score: 3, Funny) by khallow on Tuesday March 16 2021, @09:57PM (5 children)
Good for you! I think at least half the retarded crap we get on SN is due to people who can't be bothered to try to understand other peoples' viewpoints.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 16 2021, @10:24PM (1 child)
Thank you! Next up let's try and imagine the mind of the man that watches wrestling. Real wrestling, I mean. With chairs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 18 2021, @05:09AM
And then someone who watches silly superhero movies!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Tork on Tuesday March 16 2021, @11:54PM
🙄
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 17 2021, @02:52AM (1 child)
Some viewpoints are so absurd that it’s not worth it, in the same way as to truly understand insanity you must be insane.
I give you QAnon as the intersection of both. Not worth trying to understand, not worth wasting time on trying to understand, because it’s nuts. Of course, you could probably get a few grants by CLAIMING you’re doing a study on the wackos, and you could probably collect some narratives, make up some stats, and find an obfuscated way to use 1,000 words to say “fucked up people believe fucked up things.”
(Score: 4, Insightful) by khallow on Wednesday March 17 2021, @05:39AM
I strongly disagree. While keeping track of the present fads and delusions would be a utter waste of time (if only because you'd have to spend an extraordinary amount of time online just to keep track), they are quite easy to understand. This very story is the pathway.
We too would be outraged if there were a president who was using the basement of a pizza restaurant as the headquarters for their child porn ring. We too would be outraged if our favored candidates in an election were genuinely robbed of victory by election fraud. We too would be outraged if some shadowy group were deliberately making the world suck for their benefit, and so on. If these things were true, we too would be outraged. But "if" is a very big word.
The problem isn't with the outrage, it's with the low threshold of belief. My take is that everyone loves a good story. What this research suggests is that a fair number of people are particularly invested in stories, involving themselves (not necessarily as the protagonist). I'm firmly in that camp, I might add. It's fine as long as one can tell the difference between fact and fiction.
What I think is happening with QAnon (and many other weird belief systems) is that some people have lost this ability to distinguish fact from fiction, and that combined with the tendency to insert oneself into fiction, creates yearning for the excitement and validation of these lurid fantasies. Just as they have assumed the role of the virtuous protagonist, someone must play the role of the dastardly antagonist. The more venal and evil the antagonist, the sexier the story. How far down the rabbit hole they go and how much disbelief they suspend, depends on how much they need the narrative.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 17 2021, @02:29AM
Don’t. Just don’t.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday March 16 2021, @04:19PM (10 children)
You can easily lose yourself in a good book, if you have a quiet space and won't be interrupted. At least I could. That is not my life with a kid.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 16 2021, @04:20PM (3 children)
Buy a really big book, put kid in it. Get lost.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday March 16 2021, @06:07PM
I still read. I just don't get to ignore the world around me while I do so. Still, my kid would likely like a really big book they could get into. Though, as a good parent, I wouldn't be stuffing them in a book/box/randomthing and leaving them unattended. Sometimes, they want you to put them in a box, though. Kids still love giant cardboard boxes, as my kid can attest.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday March 16 2021, @07:57PM
People with really big books are just compensating.
Young people won't believe you if you say you're older than Google. (born before 1998-09-03)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 17 2021, @08:05AM
How do you put a kid in a book? Unless its a Really big book, and even then wouldn't they be squished?
Or are you talking Neverending Story here?
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday March 16 2021, @04:26PM (3 children)
Question is does this apply to books? From the summary it seems to apply to people that watch the HBO tv-show and not necessarily reading the books, that said if they are "super fans" or whatever they will probably read the books to if that isn't to much of a hassle -- but then in what order did they do it? It might be different if you are sort of fed the images and not have to form them yourself as you read the book. It's one of those things I wondered regarding say LOTR. If you are old enough you probably read those books long before the movie trilogy so you had an idea etc of what each character was and how they looked (own imagination in combination with descriptions from the book) but after the movie is it more like people here Gandalf and they "see" Ian McKellen pop up in their mind. This is I guess one of the reasons I'm not overly fond of the movies, it's sort of ruining my own imagination and the images I formed from reading the book(s) and possibly watching that "awesome" cartoon version as a kid. Still Peter Jacksons vision collides with mine.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 16 2021, @05:05PM
I guess people reading books can read the entire book instead of being fed one chapter or few pages every week. The books also gives people more to imagine than a rather flat interpretation.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday March 16 2021, @07:20PM (1 child)
Then maybe you should make your own version [youtu.be]. Actually, that would be pretty cool :-)
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Thursday March 18 2021, @01:42PM
The impractical thing about making your own film adaptation of a book from the past century, "with blackjack and hookers" as a Futurama character put it, is that it would bring a nasty letter from the Saul Zaentz company.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Reziac on Wednesday March 17 2021, @03:53AM
Writing fiction is similar, except not only do the characters live rent-free in your head, they YELL at you...
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Wednesday March 17 2021, @06:30AM
Did they remember to also scan a deal salmon [oup.com] as a control group?
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Tuesday March 16 2021, @04:45PM (2 children)
Years of avoiding having to look at a man's ass all day long had led to the inevitable.
compiling...
(Score: 3, Funny) by krishnoid on Tuesday March 16 2021, @07:25PM (1 child)
That's one possible inevitability [youtu.be], yes.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Tuesday March 16 2021, @07:44PM
I'm deliberating which response is most apt:
1. The classy [youtube.com].
OR
2. The classic [youtube.com].
Decisions decisions...
compiling...
(Score: 4, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday March 16 2021, @04:48PM (11 children)
Dunno about the mechanics but the most common result is you start thinking one of the political parties are the Good Guys.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Tuesday March 16 2021, @07:48PM (3 children)
Absurd. It's clear one is True Neutral while the other is Lawful Evil.
Now which is which...
compiling...
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday March 16 2021, @07:54PM
And if partisan political theatre is between those endpoints, "good" isn't even in the arena. That might explain a lot.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday March 16 2021, @07:54PM (1 child)
No! One of them is pure evil while the other one is totally evil. It is unclear which one is which.
Young people won't believe you if you say you're older than Google. (born before 1998-09-03)
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Tuesday March 16 2021, @08:22PM
Eventually all roads lead to Gork and Mork [fandom.com]...
compiling...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 16 2021, @08:53PM (6 children)
Definitely appreciate his careful phrasing. 🙄
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 17 2021, @02:29PM (1 child)
Yes, that's right! Never let a man you hate seem to have a reasonable side, better post some random links out of context that paints an evil picture in reply.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 17 2021, @04:41PM
(Score: 1) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday March 19 2021, @12:09AM (3 children)
And here we have a fine example of deepthroating the "They're Evil so we're Good" cock. False dichotomy. Try again when you learn to argue worth a shit.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 19 2021, @07:27PM (2 children)
I just pointed out that you seem to have two separate ideologies: "I think my team's awesome no matter what! -- BAD" -and- "I really hate that other team to the point of irrationality! -- GOOD" So far your rebuttal has been: "U BAD". Not sure what I can say to that other than "sorry about your feelz, bro."
(Score: 1) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday March 19 2021, @09:47PM (1 child)
No, you conflated thinking Group A is Bad and thinking some other group is Good. This is not the case in any way, shape, or form. Saying brown shit stinks the worst does not imply that I'm team green shit or yellow baby shit. Your chosen team is badly flawed and utterly corrupt, and I shall continue pointing it out regardless of your weak, irrational trolls.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 19 2021, @11:39PM
Not quite. I'm pointing out (as you've just corroborated...) that your approach is "I hate your side no matter what" while you're criticizing another for saying "I love my side no matter what". Both involve ignoring important stuff because of biases, so if one philosophy is still fundamentally better I'd love to hear why.
Fine with me. I get better public servants working for me when they're kept on their toes, and we've seen first-hand what blind support of a corrupt politician gets us... stupid insurrectionists. Knock yourself out!
p.s. Oh.. and careful about throwing words like 'irrational' around when a post is literally just quotes of stuff you've said. -lol-
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 16 2021, @05:37PM (2 children)
"Orange man bad"!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Tuesday March 16 2021, @07:48PM
I will give you a counterexample since you brought it up.
Nothing wrong with fiction, if it doesn't interfere with your real life. For example, I don't believe Star Trek is actually real.
Young people won't believe you if you say you're older than Google. (born before 1998-09-03)
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 16 2021, @10:42PM
Now if only there were not mountains of evidence against Dumpo the Degenerate you might possibly have a point. Maybe you meant to say: Thanks Obama!??
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 16 2021, @06:01PM
So they found out that, when you think about yourself as a fictional character, then there is some similarity to thinking about yourself in general.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 16 2021, @06:06PM (1 child)
Mesa feelin Jar Jar Binks. Mesa your humble servant!
Mesa propose that the senate give immediately emergency powers to the supreme chancellor!
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday March 16 2021, @07:53PM
Queen Amidala: [speaking to Chancellor Palpatine] It is clear to me now that the Republic no longer functions. I pray you will bring sanity and compassion back to the Senate.
Young people won't believe you if you say you're older than Google. (born before 1998-09-03)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 16 2021, @08:44PM (2 children)
I had to endure 4 years of the Trump train, then confined to cabin during the pandemic, then fantasy meets reality with an arctic cold snap, all the while my fellow passengers squabbling with apparent unawareness of the dire situation they are in.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 16 2021, @10:45PM (1 child)
For some reason science seems to have a political divide. Or more accurately, politics has a real divide with science. I'm sure there are some good people that call themselves Republicans and understand scienctific concepts. I bet they could even look at the last decade of record hot years right on top of each other and form a hypothesis! These are the good ones mind you, not the ones you normally call Karen.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 17 2021, @01:24AM
I can look at the planet warming, read the CO2 measurements, see the correlation, and agree with the theory that CO2 is a greenhouse gas.
I still think anyone screaming about consensus is not a scientist, and that the whole subject of
global warmingclimate change is now a religion for those involved. The vast majority of the most fervent adherents couldn't even handle a simple differential equation, let alone understand what they are chanting about.(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday March 16 2021, @10:39PM (2 children)
I'd want to be Tyrion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI_RjbBhenc [youtube.com]
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 17 2021, @01:26AM (1 child)
"Sign in to confirm your age :("
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 17 2021, @08:09AM
Probably the scene where his balls are removed
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 16 2021, @11:40PM (5 children)
It's like this whole generation has lost the ability to focus. No wonder nobody reads past the headline. No wonder nobody can write decent code anymore. No wonder Critical Thinking skills are so rare. People never even figured out the Pepe Le Pew scandal (hint" it's about an old Charles Boyer movie).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 17 2021, @01:15AM (4 children)
Twitter has trained a lot of people to read about 200 words max. Anything more than that and people get bored and wander into traffic.
Don't expect anyone to read a whole paragraph.
It's like trying to communicate via bumperstickers on the back of a car, which is in rush-hour traffic, and there are ambulances and fire trucks and police trying to weave through the lanes. If you get a half-second of someone's focus, you're lucky.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 17 2021, @02:19AM (3 children)
Anybody who can't keep the plot of a thousand lines of code in focus at the same time, would be better off wandering into traffic. Or go work with their hands... just stay away from the source code that's running our lives.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 17 2021, @02:40AM (2 children)
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday March 17 2021, @03:19AM
Worse than that, more than about 150 lines of Perl in a row is almost guaranteed to look enough like some sufficiently-long string of glyphs in the Necronomicon to summon something nasty D:
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 17 2021, @03:23AM
That sounds like modern fiction. It's no wonder people have short attention spans.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 17 2021, @02:04AM
TFA must have something to do with being a citizen of Yakima, WA.