Study examines fans of 'Game of Thrones' characters
From:
Ohio State University
March 15, 2021 -- 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.
"Game of Thrones" was a
fantasy drama series lasting eight seasons and concerning political and
military conflicts between ruling families on two fictional continents. It was
ideal for this study, Broom said, because it attracted a devoted fan base and
the large cast presented a variety of characters that people could become
attached to.
One of the key findings involved
participants in the study who scored highest on what is called "trait
identification." In a questionnaire they completed as part of the study,
these participants agreed most strongly with statements like "I really get
involved in the feelings of the characters in a novel."
"People who are high in trait
identification not only get absorbed into a story, they also are really
absorbed into a particular character," Broom said. "They report
matching the thoughts of the character, they are thinking what the character is
thinking, they are feeling what the character is feeling. They are inhabiting
the role of that character."
For the study, the participants' brains
were scanned in an fMRI machine while they evaluated themselves, friends and
"Game of Thrones" characters. An fMRI indirectly measures activity in
various parts of the brain through small changes in blood flow.
The researchers were particularly
interested in what was happening in a part of the brain called the ventral
medial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC), which shows increased activity when people
think about themselves and, to a lesser extent, when thinking about close
friends.
The process was simple. While in the
fMRI, participants were shown a series of names -- sometimes themselves,
sometimes one of their nine friends, and other times one of the nine characters
from "Game of Thrones." Each name appeared above a trait, like
lonely, sad, trustworthy or smart.
Participants simply said "yes"
or "no" to whether the trait described the person while the
researchers simultaneously measured activity in the vMPFC portion of their
brains.
As expected, the vMPFC was most active
when people were evaluating themselves, less active when they evaluated
friends, and least active when they evaluated "Game of Thrones"
characters.
But for those who were high in trait
identification, the vMPFC was more active when they thought about the fictional
characters than it was for participants who identified less with the
characters. That brain area was especially active when they evaluated the
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.
"For some people, fiction is a
chance to take on new identities, to see worlds though others' eyes and return
from those experiences changed," Wagner said.
"What previous studies have found
is that when people experience stories as if they were one of the characters, a
connection is made with that character, and the character becomes intwined with
the self. In our study, we see evidence of that in their brains."
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