Heroes and Villains: The Psychological Effects of Cosplay

Abstract

Prior research has suggested that identifying with fictional characters while immersing in fiction increases the likelihood of taking on the traits and perspectives of those characters (Appel, 2011; Hatvany et al., 2018; Kaufman & Libby, 2012, Shedlosky-Shoemaker et al., 2014). This study expands on these findings by examining whether wearing costume of a heroic or villainous character can cause one to take on the morality and identity of that character in the form of prosocial or antisocial behaviors, moral judgement, and temporary change in personality. Participants were randomly assigned to either dress up in the costume of a fictional hero or villain or to a no-costume control condition and completed a subtle measure of prosocial and antisocial behaviors (Saleem et al., 2015; 2017), a moral judgement task (Shtulman & Tong, 2013), and a personality measure (Rammstedt & John, 2007) while in costume. Results indicated that dressing up as a villainous or heroic character did not significantly alter the prosocial and antisocial behaviors, moral judgement, or personal identity of the participants when compared to the control group. Further correlational analyses found that participants who dressed as villains were more likely to misidentify the moral orientation of the character than participants who dressed as heroes. Several possible research directions were explored based on this finding.