“I’m Your Biggest Fan, I’ll Follow You Until You Love Me”:
A Qualitative Study On What It Means To Be A Borderline-Pathological Fan, And The
Extent To Which This Is Negative
Merel Stil
6057330
University of Amsterdam
Graduate School of Communication
Youth & Media
Miruna Doicaru
Abstract
This study focuses on the biggest and most extreme fans: borderline-pathological fans. We looked at how someone becomes such a devoted fan and what the consequences of being a borderline-pathological fan are. There is a lot of research on the topic of celebrity worship, but gaps in the scientific literature are also evident; very little is known about borderline-pathological fans and what the determinants and consequences of being one are. Furthermore, the studies that are conducted with borderline-pathological fans, exclusively show negative relations to being such a devoted fan. Via in-depth interviews this research tried to find out if being a borderline-pathological fan is as negative as previous research claims it to be.
Moreover, an aim of the study was to check whether strong previously found correlations with being a pathological fan, like loneliness, trouble socializing and making friends, are more like determinants or consequences of being a borderline-pathological fan. Tracing the development of a pathological fan from its initiation to their actual presence, the interviews could show to what extent it is negative to become such a fan. The results show that it is a predominantly positive experience to be a borderline-pathological fan, there were some minor negative consequences but these did not outweigh the positive ones. However, it must be taken into account that the participants seemed keen on coming across positive and no negative consequences were mentioned until this was explicitly asked. Which can mean that they were more positive than their life as a fan actually is.
A Qualitative Study On What It Means To Be A Borderline-Pathological Fan, And The Extent To Which This Is Negative
Everyone either is, or knows a fan of an artist, sportsman, or other public person. Stories of people waiting in line to see a concert for hours in poor weather conditions, or collecting as many posters of their favorite idol as they can, are everywhere in the media, and they are not that surprising either (McCutcheon, Ashe, Houran & Maltby, 2003). In fact, fandom has a long history, but its meaning has changed over time: the term fan, that originates from the Latin word fanaticus, was often used to describe a mentally insane or possessed person until the beginning of the twentieth century (Dietz et al., 1991). However, nowadays this term is used more positively; to refer to someone with a certain degree of enthusiasm for a (famous) person, group or artifact (e.g. a music genre or film) (Fraser & Brown, 2009). Not only the meaning of the term fan changed, fans themselves also changed; during the times of Elvis Presley and The Beatles, it was rare if a fan would throw as a teddy bear on stage (Fraser & Brown, 2009), nowadays there are increasingly more examples of fans who undergo plastic surgery to look more like their favorite idol (Elliot, 2011).
Within scientific research admiring a celebrity is widely known as celebrity worship (syndrome) (Jenkins, 2006). As with many things in life, there is a negative and a positive side of celebrity worship. In both the media and most of the studies on this topic, the negative side of being a fan is more frequently portrayed than the positive one (Stever, 2011a; Barber & Callaghan, 2010). The study of McCutcheon and Maltby (2002) paints a good picture of how negatively the media and most researchers view fans, in this study fans were defined by non-fans as: foolish, submissive and irresponsible. It is not strange that fans are described in this negative manner, research shows that worshipping a celebrity correlates with poor school and work performances (Cheung & Yue, 2003), loneliness (Ashe & McCutcheon, 2001), dissociation (Maltby, Day, McCutcheon, Houran, & Ashe, 2006) and having trouble
socializing (Houran, Navik & Zerrusen, 2004). In this current study the aim was to see whether this pessimistic view is accurate: is it truly as negative to be a fan as the media and most scientific research claims it to be?
However, there are also a few studies that prove the existence of positive correlations with being a fan. Stever (2011a,b) for instance points out in her studies, that becoming a fan can lead to friendships. Barber and Callaghan (2010) also state that meaningful relationships can be built with other fans, these relationships often having their origins in online fan communities but can further developed outside of the online world (Barber & Callaghan, 2010). Moreover, they also concluded that their participants seemed happy and healthy members of the society, and not at all as insane or troubled (Barber & Callaghan, 2010). It is fair to conclude that within the field of celebrity worship, researchers have two opposing views: scientists like Stever, Barber and Callaghan claim that fans are people who value their idols greatly but are nevertheless healthy and happy. Whereas, researchers like Maltby, McCutcheon, Cheung and Yue point out that admiring a celebrity mainly has negative consequences like poor school performances and loneliness. In conclusion, there is no consensus on whether being a fan can be seen as a negative or positive experience or as an experience in-between those two, and that is why this current research tried to clarify to what extent being a fan can be seen as a negative experience.
Most of the previous research on this topic has been quantitative. The findings from these studies are difficult to interpret though: the majority of the studies could not identify a clear causal relation, but mostly correlations between different factors and being a fan. That is why it is difficult to tell whether the positive or negative factors investigated in relation to being a fan, are consequences of becoming of becoming a fan, or determinants. For example, it could be that people who feel lonely become fans, and being a fan could have a positive impact on them; or oppositely, it could be that being a fan makes people feel lonely. In order
to overcome the ambiguities in the field, a qualitative approach consisting of in-depth
interviews was used. Such an approach gives a more complex and comprehensive description of the changing processes of becoming a fan from the perspective of the fan himself/herself. What was their situation before becoming a fan, what determined them to become one, and how that changed them, are aspects that were investigated in detail. We specifically aimed to identify the negative and positive factors, and which of them were more likely to be
consequences, and which were determinant factors of becoming a fan.
For this study, the decision was made to work with borderline-pathological fans, they are the most extreme and devoted fans (McCutcheon, Lange & Houran, 2002). This
interesting group of people have hardly ever been the subject of research, let alone qualitative research, even though they seem to be associated the most with negative effects, as they are considered pathological (Meloy, Sheridan & Hoffman, 2008). The few studies that were executed with borderline-pathological fans, all focused on the negative side, no studies looked at the positive side despite having found positive factors for fans as a whole (e.g. Stever, 2011b). Due to not identifying degrees of fandom in these studies, it is unclear if there even are positive effects for borderline-pathological fans. We tried to clarify if there are any positive consequences and what they are, as well as looking at the negative side of being a borderline-pathological fan by answering the following research question: What does it mean to be a borderline-pathological fan and to what extent is this negative?
In order to touch upon this question, sub-questions investigated how their fandom developed to the current state and what their perception is of the impact their fandom has on their daily lives. All of these aspects were evaluated from the perspective of negative versus positive factors. We looked at if these people are as troubled and lonely as research claims them to be and if they really are unintegrated in their society. A question that was posed was: were they better or worse before becoming a borderline-pathological fan?
Theoretical background
There is no clear definition of Celebrity worship (syndrome) within scientific research. The most commonly used definition of Lawrance and Baio (2009, p. 46) is: “Celebrity worship (syndrome) is an obsessive-addictive disorder in which a person becomes overly involved with the details of a celebrity's personal life”. Horton and Wohl (1956) were the first to study the relation between a media figure and a fan and called it a parasocial relationship.
Parasocial relationships are one-sided, interpersonal relationships between media figures and their audience (Horton & Wohl, 1956). Parasocial relationships became an increasingly popular with the growth in popularity of television and film (Giles, 2002). Despite the fact that these one-way relationships are based on an illusion of interaction via television, radio or the internet rather than actual interpersonal interaction, the fans believe that they really know their idol (Lawrance & Baio, 2009; Giles, 2002).
The majority of fans like to occasionally read something about their idol and listen to the music made by him/her, only a very small group of fans devote a large part of their lives to their idol, these fans who are characterized as the most extreme ones are called borderline-pathological fans (McCutcheon & Maltby, 2002). The two lower levels are: social and intense-personal. Social aspects of being a fan are important on the entertainment-social level, they like to talk about their favorite idol to others and discuss the music made by their favorite idol. On the intermediate intense-personal level personal feelings of the fans towards the idol are reflected, expressions such as “I think my idol is my soul mate” (McCutcheon et al., 2003) are used by fans at this level. In this current research borderline-pathological fans are central, other than devoting a large part of their lives to their idol, they are known to think about their favorite idol extremely frequently, have a tendency to stalk celebrities, always agree with their favorite celebrity and are willing to commit a crime if their favorite idol would ask them to (McCutcheon et al., 2003).
Factors associated with being a Fan in the Literature
In order to understand whether being a borderline-pathological fan has a negative impact or not, it is important to understand what determined people to get to that state of fandom and how that influenced them. Previous research found several correlations between people’s personality traits, attitudes and/or behaviors and their level of fandom, but these studies, being mainly correlational, could not establish which of these factors would be determinants of becoming a fan and which would be considered consequences. In this paragraph the correlations found in previous research will be discussed, when collecting data we will try to determine the nature of these connections.
Negative correlations. It is not remarkable that people have negative associations
with fans because there are multiple studies that prove the existence of a relation between fans and negative factors. A good example of such a study was executed by Dietz et al.
(1991), they describe the mental and physical harm caused by fans to their favorite celebrities. An example of such harmful behavior described in their research is a fan who made a bomb with acid inside, the intention was to send this bomb to his idol but the police intervened just in time. By performing a content analysis of (threatening) letters written by fans, they
confirmed the assumption that fans can be aggressive, criminal, isolated and alienated from society (Dietz et al., 1991). Though these fans seem to be of a borderline-pathological level, this was not measured in the study.
There were however studies that did look specifically at borderline-pathological fans or at all three levels of fandom. One of those studies focused on fantasy proneness and
dissociation (Maltby et al., 2006). It is human nature to fantasize about being someone else or about the future (Maltby et al., 2006) but when referring to fantasy proneness in relation to borderline-pathological fans it goes further than daydreaming, in this case it also includes reporting hallucinations as real (Merckelbach, Horselenberg & Muris, 2001). Maltby et al.
(2006) found a relation between the being a borderline-pathological fan and fantasy proneness, they concluded the higher intensity of worshipping, the higher the levels of fantasy proneness. In the same study Maltby et al. (2006) looked at the concept of
dissociation, which is related to fantasy proneness. Dissociation refers to two key parts: a detachment from reality, and losing control over thoughts and feelings (Maltby et al., 2006). Both parts of the definition are applicable to borderline-pathological fans. A degree of detachment from reality is shown by one of the items in the Celebrity Attitude scale that measures fandom at a borderline-pathological: “If I walked through the door of my favorite celebrity’s home without an invitation she/he would be happy to see me” (McCutcheon et al., 2003). The second part of the definition describes a loss of control over thoughts and feelings, another item that measured borderline-pathological fans describes this: “When my favorite celebrity dies, I will feel like dying too” (McCutcheon et al., 2003). Maltby et al. (2006) also came to the conclusion that the higher the level of fandom, the higher the level of dissociation. Other factors that seem to have a connection with borderline-pathological fans seem to be more relates to an emotional state of a person. For instance Maltby, McCutcheon, Ashe & Houran (2001) found a relation between borderline-pathological fandom and anxiety as well as with borderline-pathological fans and depression (Maltby et al., 2001). In a different study is pointed out that that depression can lead to isolation. Isolation can also be
experienced because of a competition element that is sometimes part of being borderline-pathological. Maltby et al. (2006) say that borderline-pathological fans often want to be better than other fans, by knowing more about the idol than another fan or having been to more concerts, etc. This competition can cause friction and even isolation. In addition, Ashe and McCutcheon (2001) executed a study regarding loneliness and its possible relation to all three levels of fandom. They found that the stronger the parasocial relation, the lonelier a fan is, which means that borderline-pathological fans are very lonely. Bell and Daly (1985) found
that loneliness is related to patterns of communication behavior, including difficulty in communicating, being anxious about communication and evaluating their own
communication abilities as negative. Furthermore, other factors also seem to be related to the (lack of) social skills of borderline-pathological fans. Houran et al. (2004), found that
borderline-pathological fans have trouble being social and show poor interpersonal
boundaries. These fans desperately want to socialize but they do not know how to properly do this and that is why they often cross interpersonal boundaries (Houran et al., 2004).
Being a borderline-pathological also seems to correlate with certain negative behavior, in this case poor performances in their professional life. Cheung and Yue (2003) discovered that the higher the level of celebrity worship, the worse their school results and work
performances. Borderline-pathological fans had trouble concentrating because they thought about their idol very frequently and that made them perform worse on school exams than non-worshippers (Cheung & Yue, 2003).
Positive correlations. It is not all doom and gloom, there are also positive factors that
are related to being a fan in the literature. None of the following studies are however
executed with borderline-pathological fans, instead these articles were written about fans as a whole without making a distinction in intensity with which someone worships an idol.
Henry Jenkins is a researcher who is a firm believer in the positive sides of being a fan, he claims that researchers often do research that tends to confirm their preconceptions of who fans are and what they do. Another argument made by Jenkins was that all studies that show the negative impact of celebrity worship are executed by the same group of researchers who study fans from within their ivory tower without “getting their hands dirty” (Jenkins, 2006) and actually talk to these people. In his book Fans, Bloggers and Gamers Jenkins (2006) describes fans as active, creative, critically engaged and socially connected consumers of popular culture.
One researcher that also thinks that there is a lack of portraying the positive side to being a fan is Gayle Stever. In her studies she found multiple positive relations with being a fan (2011a, 2011b). She noticed that one of the primary positive aspects of being a fan is the social contact with other like-minded fans. Via fan communities and gatherings fans tend to make friends. Because the idol in question means so much to a fan, they have an important common interest and that makes it easy to talk to others. Fans like to talk about their idol and share their feelings, thoughts and experiences, this is much easier with other fans than with non-fans and that is one if the reasons why they build friendships. Galinsky et al. (2006) came to a similar conclusion, namely that a social void can be filled when people admire celebrities. This void can be filled by other fans but also by the idol. The filling of this void results into positive feelings (Galinsky et al., 2006).
A study by Barber and Callaghan (2010) is one of the very few qualitative studies done on the subject of fans. In this research they interviewed eight participants from Stephen Gately’s official message board and drew the conclusion that fans are wrongly pathologized. The interviewed fans seemed happy and healthy members of society who greatly admire their idol and in their spare time like to do activities that somehow involve him (e.g. talk about him and collect posters), according to the fans this was no different than any other hobby. Not only, did Barber and Callaghan (2010) label the fans as happy and healthy people, the fans themselves also viewed being a fan as a positive experience.
The results of Barber and Callaghan’s (2010) research slightly overlap with results from Stever’s studies (2011a, 2011b). She came to the conclusion that parasocial
relationships can lead to experiencing the same emotions as real two-sided interpersonal relationships. Stever (2011a) and Jenkins (2006) say that a fan can be as happy in a parasocial relationship, than a non-fan in a real interpersonal relationship. Giles (2002) added that having a parasocial relationship can be a good preparation for a real relationship because of
experiencing the same emotions in both types of relationships.
Goals and Research Questions
It is not known which of the aforementioned positive and negative factors associated
with fans are actually determinants, or traits developed after becoming fans. For instance, it is not clear whether people who feel generally lonely become fans, or if loneliness is a
consequence of becoming fans. If people who become fans are generally lonely, it may be that by becoming a fan, they actually cope with their distress, and it may have a beneficial impact on them. This research tried to ascertain which factors are determinants and which are consequences of being a fan, and more importantly this study tried to figure out whether being a borderline-pathological fan is as negative as described in earlier research, or if there are also positive consequences like research proves there are among fans as a whole. Because the studies who found correlates with positive factors were executed with fans without
identifying their level of fandom, it could be that these positive effects are only experienced by the lower levels of celebrity worship. This is assumed because fans at lower levels are less associated with negative factors and seem to be better at socializing than
borderline-pathological fans (McCutcheon et al., 2003). Through conducting in-depth interviews an answer will be given on the main question of this study: What does it mean to be a borderline-pathological fan and to what extent is this negative? This question will be answered via answering the following sub-questions:
• What leads people to becoming borderline-pathological fans? • What are the consequences of being a borderline-pathological fan?
In this study the decision for a qualitative method was made due to wanting to find out the background of why people become borderline-pathological fans, told by the fans themselves. Qualitative research can provide a broader context and motivations of becoming a fan, and could give a more complex picture of the whole process, than quantitative research
even if all the answers are perceptions of the fans themselves. Furthermore, because
borderline-pathological fans are associated with many negative factors it is important to know what they think about all the different aspects of being a fan, to see whether the impact is truly negative. It seems that this is the first qualitative study with borderline-pathological fans.
Method
The method of this research is of a qualitative nature, data was collected via in-depth interviews with borderline-pathological fans. To be able to interview this specific group of fans, participants needed to be identified as not just fans, but as borderline-pathological fans. To measure if a fan was borderline-pathological a survey was created with existing items from the Celebrity Attitude scale by McCutcheon, Lange and Houran (2002). This scale originally consisted of three sub-scales, these correspond with the three levels of fandom: entertainment-social, intense-personal and borderline-pathological. There were items for each of the categories of fandom, but only the twelve items that measure borderline-pathological fandom were used. Examples of these items are: “If I were lucky enough to meet my idol, and he/she asked me to do something illegal as a favor, I would probably do it” and “If someone gave me several thousand dollars to do with as I please, I would consider spending it on a personal possession (like a napkin) once used by my favorite idol” (McCutcheon et al., 2003). The constructed survey consisted of twelve items with a six-point scale ranging from one (completely disagree) to six (completely agree). In addition to the twelve items, several questions about personal information such as gender and age were asked.
The survey was distributed via Facebook to emerging adults (18 to 25 years old). Emerging adults were chosen as a target group because of practical reasons such as
difficulties attaining permission from parents of minors and because above the age of 25 it is less likely to be a fan (Cheung & Yue, 2003; Jenkins, 2006). In total 140 people filled in the survey, the data in SPSS showed that most of these respondents scored very low on this very
reliable scale (N= 140, M= 2.86, SD= 2.03, α= .89). Only a small group of thirteen people scored averagely high: above four on the six-point scale and were considered (the most) borderline-pathological (N= 13, M= 4.77, SD= .59). These people were then emailed with more information about the research (a short summary of the study was already given as part of the survey) and with an informed consent form which they had to sign before the interview could take place. In total six people from those thirteen people wanted to take part in the interviews (N=6, M=4.89, SD=.52), this group consisted of three boys and three girls between the ages of 19 and 22. The interviewed fans admired different artists: two men admired Lady Gaga, one woman was a fan of One Direction, another woman liked Rihanna and one men and one woman were 30 Seconds to Mars fans. To protect the anonymity of the participants, nicknames were assigned to them during the analysis of the data. The men were named George, Paul and John, and the women were called Monica, Rachel and Phoebe.
The interviews were all executed via a webcam through computer program Skype, this decision was made to be able to look at the body language of the participants and to make sure that they were not distracted by anything. All interviews were recorded with a mobile phone to be able to analyze the data afterwards, these recordings will be deleted after
finalizing this study. The interviews were semi-structured, there was a clear list of questions but also some room to explore the answers from the participants. After transcribing all interviews, data was analyzed with computer program Atlas.ti. The first step in the analysis process was to reread all the material and start the open coding. In this part of the analysis a summary is made from all the material and more structure is given to the data by adding tentative codes to the transcripts (Flick, 2009). The next step was axial coding, this part consisted of identifying relationships among the open codes and trying to find out what the connections among the codes are. The last step was selective coding, during this phase previously identified discrete concepts and categories are further defined, developed, and
refined and whilst keeping the research question in mind (Flick, 2009). These steps resulted into a list of codes divided into positive and negative correlations, these correlations were further divided into determinants and consequences.
Findings and Discussion
Determinants: becoming a Borderline-Pathological Fan
When looking at factors that might have led participants into becoming a fan, loneliness seems to be an important drive. Not only was loneliness confirmed to be a
determinant but it also seemed to decrease after becoming a fan. The participants reported feeling lonely frequently and sometimes even isolated. Some said not to have many (close) friends and that they would spend a large part of the day in solitary. However, except for one female participant, all fans reported feeling less lonely after becoming a fan, on this subject “George” (22 years old) said: “I often felt lonely before, now I spend a lot of my time talking to friends online, I sometimes still feel lonely but definitely way less than before”. On the decrease of loneliness will be elaborated more in a latter part of this results section where the positive consequences of being a fan are discussed. In previous research, Ashe and
McCutcheon (2001) found a correlation between being a borderline-pathological fan and loneliness, they did not find a causal relation. Based on the interviews in this study it seems plausible that loneliness is a determinant of becoming a borderline-pathological fan.
Loneliness also seems to be related to another factor namely: social competence. The majority of the interviewed fans pointed out that they have trouble being social in various ways and therefore suffer from loneliness. They talked about having problems
communicating with people when they first met, keeping conversations going and not knowing what is appropriate to discuss. “I feel like I struggle more with normal everyday conversations than other people, when I go out with my friends, there are always awkward silences when I talk to people, it seems that my friends don’t have this problem”, 20-year-old
“John” said. It seems that these borderline-pathological fans already had problems with socializing before becoming a fan, for they reported that their social skills did not change considerably since becoming a fan. However, the fans did report feeling less lonely after becoming a fan, in spite of their social skills not improving. This can be explained by the participants finding it easier to talk to other fans and to bond with them, than with complete strangers. They consider it to be difficult to talk fellow fans, but less difficult than talking to complete strangers. A good illustration of the situation was given by “Phoebe” (22 years old): “I’m just not that good socially, I have accepted that. I find it difficult to talk to people. I guess that’s why I talk more with other fans than with people who aren’t fans of [the idol], though I have to admit that I also find it difficult to keep conversations going and choosing appropriate conversation topics with fellow fans”. This study supports the findings from the aforementioned study by Houran et al. (2004), in which they concluded that borderline-pathological fans want to be social but have trouble doing so.
It seems that as a way of coping with their loneliness and social problems, borderline-pathological fans like to fantasize. The fans reported that fantasizing about their idol made them feel happy and made them forget about problems in their lives. The participants mentioned liking to fantasize about what it would be like if they met their idol, but they would also like to go one step further and imagine being married to him/her, others pretend to go somewhere with their favorite idol, such as “Monica” (20 years old), who said that she likes to imagine what it would be like if her idol and her would go to a red carpet event together. The fans reported always having liked to fantasize about the future and about events that they were unlikely to attend such as a Hollywood movie premiere. The only aspect of fantasizing that changed after becoming a borderline-pathological fan, is that they now fantasize about a concrete person, this parasocial relationship make it all more real to them, and they end up feeling less lonely. That fans are fond of fantasizing was not entirely what
was found in previous research, earlier research stated that fans were unable to distinguish fantasy from reality and moreover that borderline-pathological fans had a tendency to report hallucinations as real (Maltby et al., 2006). This was not the case, the interviewed fans did not have trouble distinguishing fantasy from reality: “Most of the time I do this [fantasizing] in bed, it’s a bit strange but it’s something that I really look forward to, despite knowing that it’s not real and that it will never happen”, “George” (22 years old) said. They also did not report hallucinations as real, as far as they could tell.
Moreover, what stood out from the interviews was how much the fans wanted to be appreciated by their idol, and how much they value the expression of appreciation for them. “Monica” a 20-year-old fan, said that her idol shows that he cares for ‘The Echelon’ (the name of their fan community) and that it makes her feel special whenever he shows his appreciation for them. The fans described their idols as people who care about their fans deeply, and the participants said that this was an important reason for becoming a fan, they said that the showing of appreciation for the fans is what differentiates their idol from other artists who do not show their gratitude as much. It also seems that the showing of gratitude by the idol is of great importance to borderline-pathological fans because they are associated with loneliness and isolation, as this and previous research dictates (Ashe & McCutcheon, 2001; Maltby et al., 2006). Like with, fantasizing, the reception of gratitude from the idol seems to be a coping mechanism to deal with their loneliness, isolation and social
misunderstanding. The demonstration of appreciation leads to their one-sided parasocial relationship becoming two-sided, to a certain degree which makes them happy: “I feel excited when I see a message on twitter in which [the idol] thanks fans, I feel personally addressed”, “Paul” (19 years old) said. It seems like the happiness that they gain from such moments makes them feel less lonely and isolated.
of a certain artist, is the music that he/she makes, the participants stated to be interested in the person behind the music as well but they emphasized that the music was their main reason for becoming a fan. This seems like an evident result but since borderline-pathological fans are characterized as extreme and delusional it could have been that they moved past the music and were more interested in the artist, but this proved to be false.
Consequences: Borderline-Pathological Fandom as a Positive Experience
The positive consequences. The response from all the borderline-pathological
participants was predominantly positive, they described being a fan as a positive experience that enriched their lives. This is surprising since the literature provided only negative factors in relation to them, positive factors correlated with being a fan but not necessarily with being a borderline-pathological fan. The fans themselves regarded the consequences as positive, however it must be said that when looking at the consequences objectively and in detail it can be said that some positive consequences also have negative sides, and the negative
consequences are not always entirely negative.
The first consequence of being a borderline-pathological fan that enriched their lives was, making friends. Most of these friendships started on the internet, but some friends were also made at concerts or at other fan activities. Some of the closest friends of fans are fellow fans, such friendships are truly treasured by them as we can see from the choice of words as well as the body language they used. “John” (20 years old), lit up talking about this subject he said to have met his best friend through a Facebook fan page of their common idol. “I am so happy that I found him, now I have someone with whom I can talk to about the idol, I can’t really do that with the friends I grew up with, they don’t really care about her”. Making friends is clearly a beneficial aspect of being a borderline-pathological fan, as five out of the six participants mentioned having made close friends via fan communities. These results correspond with results from Barber and Callaghan (2010) and Stever’s studies (2011a,
2011b), they also found that making friends is one of the biggest advantages of being a fan. Those three studies were conducted with fans as a whole and therefore it was not known whether this would also be true for borderline-pathological fans. Based on the interviews in this study it can be said that this is also true for borderline-pathological fans, they also see making friends as one of the positive consequences of being a fan.
What was striking is how meaningful fans claim these relationships to be, “Rachel” (22 years old) said about these relationships: “Whenever I had fight with someone, the only person I want to talk to is “Kim”, even though I spend a lot of my time at school and it would be easier to talk to some of my friends there, but I feel like “Kim” really knows me and I value her opinion greatly” they mention that these fellow fans are often the first people they go to when having a problem. They feel like they can trust them and they feel safe ‘around’ them, despite having never met them in person. It seems that there is a movement from a superficial friendship towards a more meaningful friendship, at first they just talk about their common interest: their idol, but some of these superficial friendships grow to a deeper and more meaningful relationship in which they talk about more than the shared idol. This is illustrated by what “John” (20 years old) said in one of the interviews: “first we started having brief conversations about the idol and forwarding pictures and videos, and then we started to have conversations that sometimes latest hours. We didn’t always talk about [the idol] but a lot of the time we did and that was very exciting for me”. So even though the participants reported having difficulties socializing, they also admit to having made
(meaningful) friendships. This can again be explained by the fact that they said to have less problems socializing with fellow fans, this was also found in previous research by Stever (2011b).
The making of new friends through (online) fan communities is also beneficial for people who are lonely. As stated before probable causal relations were found between being a
borderline-pathological fan and loneliness as well as with having trouble socializing. It seems that by becoming a fan they (partly) cope with this problem because of the friends they make and that is why the loneliness decreases. As stated before in a study by Stever (2011b) it is easier for fans to socialize with other fans, because of the shared common interest.
Another positive consequence of being a borderline-pathological according to the fans is that it provides genuine happiness. “Phoebe”, a 22 year old fan said about the provision of joy because of the idol: “I met new people, visited new places and done so much other fun things that I can’t deny the happiness that [the idol] has brought me”. Even the fans who were hesitant at first about taking part in this research, enjoyed talking about their idol and the admiration that they have for him/her. Barber and Callaghan’s (2010) main conclusion was that being a fan provided happiness for fans, this researched confirms this conclusion for borderline-pathological fans. Even though they are the most extreme fans, they seem to be happy and largely because of their idol and being a fan.
Another way of providing happiness through the idol was via the process of mood modification/management. When feeling down the fans reported using the idol’s music to modify their mood so that they feel happier than before, "Listening to their music just makes me feel so intensely happy, when I hear their music I like to sing along and dance to it, most of the time it’s hardly dancing what I do, just jumping around and going crazy”, “George” (22 years old) said. Further, they also reported that when listening to his/her music without the intention of changing their mood it also made them feel happier. When listening to the artist’s music, it is not just the music that makes them happy, they said that they think of their idol when listening to his/her music and that is also what provides happiness. Entertainment such as films and music are often used to modify a person’s mood (Zillman, 1988), however this is not a subject that is mentioned within the literature on celebrity worship.
be debatable, fit into the category called ‘lifestyle changes’. Two participants mentioned changing their dietary behavior because of because of their idol, “Monica” (20 years old) said “I became a vegetarian because I saw that [the idol] was a vegetarian”, they emphasized that they did not become a vegetarian just because of the idol “I did not became a vegetarian because he is one, he just opened my eyes, I didn’t really know how sausages and other stuff were made, but now that I do I stopped eating meat. So I’m happy that [the idol] opened my eyes, so to speak”, “Monica” (20 years old) said. Whether becoming a vegetarian is a good or a bad thing is debatable, but what can be said with certainty is that the participants saw this as a positive consequence of becoming a fan. Another participant talked about caring more about the environment because of their idol and what she believes in. “Rachel” (22 years old) said to have changed her behavior after noticing how much her idol cares about the
environment: “I started reading up on climate change and other stuff like that and now I pay more attention to what I do, I for instance don’t leave the television on standby anymore”.
The negative consequences. As stated before, the predominance of the consequences
was seen as positive by the fans, when asked what the consequences of being a fan were all of them only mentioned positive effects. There were also experiences that were regarded as negative, but these were not mentioned until this was explicitly asked. Which shows that the fans want to come across as positive even if that might not be the case.
The first negative consequences that was named was spending large amounts of money on the idol in the form of concert tickets, merchandise and other items related to the idol. It is both the large amount of money that they are spending which they view as negative, as well as the high prices of items. The participants realize that spending a lot of money can be (potentially) damaging: “Whenever I come back from a concert I always wonder why I spend so much money on stuff that I don’t really need, I mean I like having T-shirts and stuff but I already have so many. And I could use the money for other things. But I’m always so
happy after a concert and I just want to buy things. The people who sell merchandise
probably know this”. This seems like a very reasonable statement, which would suggest that they are not delusional. They realize that the money can be put to better use and that
marketing tricks are played on them.
In spite of experiencing spending a large amount of money as one of the main
negative aspects of being a fan, the participants also recognized the positive side of spending money on their idol, they realize that they are making a contribution to the artist’s career. They know that CD-sales are not as successful in making a profit for artists as they used to be and that buying merchandise can help their idol generate a profit with which more albums can be made or more concerts organized. This is a positive consequence for the artist but indirectly also for the fan because in the end they end up with new music or other material because of the money they put in to the artist.
Spending money on merchandise or how fans feel about this, was never extensively discussed in the celebrity worship literature, the only aspect related to money that was mentioned is part of the Celebrity Attitude scale, namely: the willingness to spend several thousand dollars, on a personal item once used by their idol (McCutcheon et al., 2003). Data from the interviews show that the fans will not go to that distant, they like buying items related to their idol to show their alliance to their idol or to promote their idol, but they do not specifically care about items touched by their idol. In their eyes the item does not become more special when it is touched by their favorite celebrity.
Overall, when it comes to money it seems that they do not spend blindly, they think about their money and look for rational reasons to justify their purchase; they do not simply buy things because they were touched by the idol, but rather because they want to help them. It is more similar to a process of giving and taking; the fans and the idol want to help each other. This overall can be interpreted as a positive in the way that: they are perfectly aware of
the downside of spending all that money, and are aware that this just nurtures their parasocial relationship.
Moreover, ridicule was named as a negative consequence of admiring an idol, even though most fans tried to not let the ridiculing of their idol or themselves bother them, it would still hurt their feelings. The ridicule that they spoke of came in two forms: direct and indirect, direct ridicule is when a fan got a personal insulting message from someone and indirect ridicule was described as a message that was not necessarily directed to them, but it was still there for them to read, e.g. when a message was posted as a status update on Facebook. The participants said that such negative messages could make them feel bad. “Sometimes I’ve had a great day, and then one twitter message that isn’t even for to me can ruin my day. I hate it when they talk negatively about [the idol] because I care about him and also because I feel like in a way they are being negative about me, because he means so much to me”, “Paul” (19 years old) said. In these insulting messages the idol was most often
ridiculed, there was only one mention of a message that insulted fans. So why would fans still feel offended if they were not the ones who were being insulted? It seems that the reason behind feeling personally offended by negative remarks, even when they are not directed at them, is because they have partly taken over the identity of the idol and that is why they feel personally offended. This is negative because when this occurs the fans no longer think from their own point of view, but from the perspective of the idol. Van de Laar and Voerman (2011) describe in their research that losing your own identity, is detrimental because when you lose your own identity you also lose your own values and believes and no longer think of what is in your best interest, but instead you think of what is best for someone else and that is why this can be seen as a negative consequence of being a fan.
The final negative consequence that came up during the interviews, was the negative impact that being a fan had on their lives as a student (all of the participants were students).
Participants reported not attending school because of wanting to wait in line for a concert and they mentioned getting distracted during classes because of thinking about their favorite idol. The fans did not see these negative effects as having a major impact on their lives or that getting distracted or missing a day makes them different than other students as this quote from “Monica” (20 years old) illustrates: “I’ve missed a couple of school days because of going to concerts but I don’t think this affected my grades negatively, I mean everyone misses a couple of days of school in their lives, some missed them because they were sick, I missed some due to a concert. And I am never sick, so I don’t think it matters much”. In research by Cheung and Yue (2003) they came to similar conclusions, they also observed that being a fan has an impact on their school lives. In their correlational research Cheung and Yue (2003) concluded this impact to be negative whereas results in this current study seem to be more optimistic about the impact of being a fan on their professional lives. This difference can be explained by the fact that even though the participants said to have spoken the truth, they may not have been honest it is about the genuine negative effect that being a fan has on their lives at school. Moreover, because they are relatively young it might be difficult for them to be aware of all the (negative) effects that being a fan has on their school lives.
Factors from Previous Research with which No Relation was found
The interviewed borderline-pathological fans did not have any trouble distinguishing fantasy from reality, as mentioned before they like to fantasize but they did not report
hallucinations as real, which is part of the definition of fantasy proneness (Merckelbach et al., 2001). Nor did they mention losing control over their thoughts and feelings which is part of the description of dissociation (Maltby et al., 2006). Therefore it can be said that neither of these associations were confirmed in this study.
with personal boundaries even though previous research found a correlation between being a borderline-pathological fan and having boundary-issues (Houran et al., 2004). In fact, the participants were well aware of what was appropriate to do and what was not. “Rachel” (22 years old) described having met her favorite idol after a concert, and said to have behaved completely normal even though she was “screaming on the inside”, she mentioned wanting to hug him but she realized that this was inappropriate and therefore decided to waive this urge. As previously mentioned a relation was found between loneliness and being a
borderline-pathological fan, however anxiety and depression were concepts of which no correlations with being a borderline-pathological fan were found in the interviews. In a study by Maltby et al. (2001) anxiety and depression did correlate with being a
borderline-pathological fan. As mentioned before, fans want to come across positive and they want to show ‘outsiders’ that being a fan is a positive experience, it could therefore be possible that the participants chose to withhold that they felt anxious and/or depressed.
When analyzing the transcripts from the interviews, no obvious differences were found between male and female participants on any of the discussed subjects.
Limitations
This research also had some limitations that that could have possibly affected the results. Due to the method it was possible to report on the opinions of the participants about how negative it was for them to become borderline-pathological fans, however their
perception may be biased. A suggestion for further research could be to conduct a study with a quantitative method to more get a better understanding of how their situation truly us. Moreover, more qualitative research can also be executed, it would be interesting to see interviews with family members, school teachers and (old) friends to find out how these people view the possible change that people have gone through by becoming a fan. In
because of becoming a fan. For instance it is known that teenagers often feel like no one understands them and they could feel lonely as a result of that (Bukatko, 2007). It is possible that when they become older they will start feeling less lonely, which could mean that being a borderline-pathological fan does not reduce loneliness but growing up does. This theory can be tested by executing an experimental study with two groups of young adults: borderline-pathological fans and non-fans, it is then possible to see whether their age makes them feel lonely or whether being a borderline-pathological fan does.
Conclusion
The main research question in this study was: What does it mean to be a borderline-pathological fan and to what extent is this negative? In conclusion it can be said that borderline-pathological fans are usually regarded as being delusional and troubled, but not many researchers tried to look into their perspective about their situation and their motivation to become such a devoted fan. The main findings show that for them becoming fans was a way of coping with their already existing loneliness and social misunderstanding. Being a fan brought them many positive things such as meaningful friendships, a feeling of belonging and genuine happiness. These fans did not seem delusional or troubled. However, there were some elements of the interviews that raise cautiousness in interpreting the consequences as being completely positive: the participants showed several times that they were very eager on coming across positive and therefore it is possible that the participants withheld or distorted (important) information.
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