They never stop exploring and always keep themselves updated about the things they are obsessed with: reading everything about the latest high-tech gadgets, attending every cosplay event and conference in town, etc. They just want to be the first to be there, the first to hear about unconfirmed rumors, and of course, the first to break the news to everyone.
After all, it is very much their life goal. Take for instance the case of the stereotypical computer geeks. Sure, they may be crazy over computer technology and the latest technology trends in computing, but they often focus on a particular brand or system. Being a fan of a specific OS, comic superhero, cosplay costume, sci-fi movie, programming language, and others is one thing, while sticking to it no matter what happens is another. Geeks do both. They are willing to stand up for what they believe in , even when times are really bad.
It involves emotions when it comes to their fandom. MacQuarrie has posted a little article on a recent controversy in the archery community. My instant reaction is to get irritated when someone from the archery world gets angry when it is called a geek sport. Is this a bad thing? I want to go fight for the label I embrace. But if I were to enter the fray, I would have already lost the battle, because that whole conversation is trying to decide what content fits under the word geek.
Archery isn't a geek sport any more than curling or basketball are geek sports, but there are such things as archery, curling, and basketball geeks. The genius of Jim's MacQuarrie's definition of the word geek is that it clearly defines what it means to be a geek without excluding anyone. The researchers began by assembling the first-ever Geek Culture Engagement Scale, in an attempt to pin down what, exactly, constitutes geekdom. Using wording intended "to attract people who are engaged in geek culture," they gathered two separate groups of participants and , respectively , and asked them the extent to which they participate in a variety of activities.
These included "table top role-playing games" such as Dungeons and Dragons ; making and wearing costumes of superheroes, Anime characters, and the like; and more generic fields such as robotics, puppetry, theater, and creative writing. Participants were also asked the extent to which they were fans of such entertainment genres as fantasy, science fiction, Japanese comic books, and, for some reason, Broadway musicals.
I haven't seen too many people dressing up as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof , but maybe I've just been hanging with the wrong crowd. In addition, participants filled out some standard personality tests, including ones designed to determine their level of narcissism, self-esteem, depression, and sense of entitlement.
The researchers found engaging in geek culture "consistently relates to grandiose narcissism, openness, extroversion, depression, and subjective well-being. In one, featuring online participants, the researchers asked about life goals.
They found that "individuals high in geek engagement endorsed items reflecting a desire for power and status"—another indicator of narcissism. However, it was also associated with "non-political civic organizations," a finding that led the researchers to speculate that activities such as volunteering at conventions may "provide more opportunities for geeks to be engaged.
The results of Study 6 suggest that those individuals most engaged in geek culture are more likely to report traits associated with narcissism, openness, neuroticism, and fantasy proneness, and have tendencies toward dissociation and schizotypal personality, but have lower crystallized intelligence than individuals lower in geek engagement.
This pattern is consistent with the great fantasy migration hypothesis, but only partially consistent with the desire for engagement hypothesis, as geek engagement showed strong relationships with those constructs related to creativity i. This suggests those engaged in geek culture only need engagement in terms of creative outlets, rather than stimulation. In addition, the negative relationship with crystallized intelligence, although persistent when controlling for demographic variables, needs more research to be fully understood.
The Shipley uses a vocabulary test as a proxy for crystallized intelligence. This may reflect reduced education or reduced verbal ability rather than reduced cognitive ability. More research with a more in depth intelligence scale is warranted. In addition to the traits measured in Study 6, the need for engagement hypothesis predicts that creative individuals may be more likely to engage in geek culture.
Study 7 examines this prediction. Another individual difference variable associated with need for engagement is creativity. Creative people are often said to require stimulation and novelty [ 34 ], and in addition to having stimulating and novel themes e. In Study 7, we measured geek culture engagement along with several aspects of creativity including values and attitudes toward creativity, creative activities and behaviors, and the generation of ideas.
Because we had not yet measured education in regards to geek engagement, we also included education in our demographics for this study. A positive relationship between geek engagement and creativity would be consistent with the desire for engagement hypothesis.
These scales are as follows:. Participants indicated whether they have engaged in each activity a never b once in school or work as an assignment c more than once in school or work d once on their own or e more than once on their own. We assessed all relationships using zero-order correlations. Thus, individuals high in geek engagement report having more ideas, feel compelled to do more creative projects, and value creativity and its products more than individuals low in geek engagement.
All creativity indexes continued to significantly predict geek engagement, while age and social class significantly predicted geek engagement and education marginally predicted geek engagement.
Thus, individuals with high geek engagement not only engaged in opportunities to be creative in work or school, where they may have been encouraged or even made to do so, but also undertook creative endeavors on their own time and of their own accord.
The results of Study 7 provide further support for the desire for engagement hypothesis in that those higher in geek engagement seem to hold positive attitudes toward creativity and engage in more creative activity in general. Identification as a geek was also tied to creative attitudes and behaviors, suggesting that creativity is an acknowledged part of geek culture and considered part of the geek stereotype.
To make the results more clear, we meta-analyzed results collected in more than one sample and present them in Fig 1. This relationship persisted after controlling for age, gender, SES, and in Study 7, education. We can say with high confidence that geek engagement is positively related to narcissism, which provides partial support for the great fantasy migration hypothesis.
Hypersensitive narcissism, entitlement, depression and subjective well-being all showed relationships consistently above zero over the course of two studies, whereas the Big Five traits of openness, neuroticism, and extraversion showed average relationships above zero over the course of three studies.
However, in Studies 1 and 6, the majority of these relationships went away when controlling for gender age, and SES. Only openness, depression, and SWB maintained significance in Study 1, and openness maintained significance in Study 6 except when fantasy proneness and schizotypal personality were controlled for.
This item showed a consistent negative relationship with geek engagement, suggesting that geeks may perceive themselves as less engaged in their daily lives. Further research is required to determine whether this lack in felt engagement is specific to geek engagement. In , these same markers of geek culture are box office smashes, multi-billion dollar industries, and a wide-reaching counterculture with its own brands, fashion trends, and celebrities.
We sought to better understand the phenomenon of geek culture primarily at the individual level—that is, to understand why a given individual would choose to engage in geek culture. We developed and validated two scales to measure two major components of geek culture: engagement and identity. We also proposed and found mixed evidence for each of three models of geek cultural engagement.
We review these findings below. The GCES is the first measure of its kind to focus specifically on the geek subculture. The GCES shows excellent reliability and construct validity. It adequately distinguishes self-identified populations e. Despite several of its factors having only two items, it presents a stable factor structure, with the majority of its subscales showing appropriate reliability.
However, these subscale scores remain correlated to the other subscales and to geek engagement as a whole, and inclusion of their items in the full scale score does little to harm the overall reliability of this measure. There are important limitations to the interpretations that can be drawn from the GCES. First, because we used major geek conventions to generate the list of activities for the scale, this scale may fail to capture more marginalized geek activities that are not represented at a large convention.
Although specialists were relatively rare in our samples, they did appear to differ from other geeks in terms of Big Five personality variables—especially agreeableness, where specialists reported relatively low levels. Thus, the GCES speaks best to generalist geeks, and caution should be used when specifically studying specialist geeks.
However, homophily between geeks with specific interests Study 5 only emerged when controlling for intercorrelation between subscales, and the Geek Identity Scale GIS correlates positively with the full scale GCES, implying that identification as a geek intensifies as one is engaged in more and more geek activities. Although geek specialists may exist, these persons may identify less with geek culture per se, and identify more strongly with their chosen fandom, as evidenced by their lower overall score on geek identity.
The GIS also shows excellent internal consistency and reliability across samples as a measure of identification with the geek subculture. Together, these two scales may capture the majority of geek behavior, but more work should be done to measure geek obsessiveness, which may be important in distinguishing higher levels of geek engagement, and more cultural aspects, such as social currency, systems of meaning, and social norms.
Studies 1, 2, 3, and 6 addressed the great fantasy migration hypothesis, which predicts that individuals high in narcissism and fantasy proneness will engage in the immersive aspects of geek culture at the expense of engagement in real life in order to live out grandiose fantasies.
In support of this hypothesis, we find a positive correlation between narcissism and geek engagement, as well as a positive correlation between geek engagement and fantasy proneness see Fig 1. Less consistent with the hypothesis, the results of Study 3 do not support a negative association between geek culture and broader engagement with civic society. Although they showed slight disengagement from political behavior and more trust in the government, those high in geek engagement were more likely to value career, financial, and activist goals, showing greater engagement in their own lives.
Thus, we found mixed evidence for the great fantasy migration hypothesis. It may be that narcissistic individuals are indeed engaging more in geek activities, but are still able to remain engaged in their life goals and in civic organizations that are not involved in politics.
In a sense, then, geek culture might be an additional outlet for narcissism but not the only one used by individuals. Ultimately, these data provide only a snapshot of geek and real life engagement at one point in time. In order to thoroughly test the great fantasy migration hypothesis, longitudinal data is needed to determine whether depression or negative events at one point in time leads to greater geek engagement at a later point in time, which then leads to reduced engagement in real life events still later.
Whether those high in geek engagement also continue to experience the negative effects of failure in real life e. Geek engagement showed a significant positive relationship to depression across several studies after controlling for demographic variables, suggesting that at the time of the survey, at least, individuals high in geek engagement felt depressed.
Studies 1, 4, and 5 addressed the belongingness hypothesis, which predicts that individuals will engage in geek culture to fulfill belongingness needs. Belongingness has long been considered a basic need [ 23 ] and Self-Determination Theory [ 24 ] posits that much of human motivation is driven by basic needs related to belongingness e.
Study 1 provided little support for this hypothesis, as the relationships subscale of the BPN scale showed no relationship to geek engagement. This implies that those high in geek engagement are neither more nor less likely to have fulfilled their belongingness needs than those who are low in geek engagement.
However, in Study 4, whether participants expected to be accepted or rejected by others for participating in geek activities significantly predicted both their self-directed emotions and actual engagement in each activity. Study 5 addressed the social networking facet of this hypothesis: specifically, individuals engaging in geek activities form ties with others through those activities. Although there was no correlation between geek engagement and network size, density, or centrality, we found distinct evidence of homophily between persons with similar geek engagement scores.
This homophily was most pronounced with persons of similar specific geek interests e. While homophily [ 28 ] is a well-known phenomenon in multiple domains e. However, whether geeks are finding others with similar interests or introducing their already geeky friends to their specific geek interests can only be tested with a longitudinal study. Another drawback of these data is that they rely on the self-report of a single individual within each network.
A social network analysis in which each member of the network provides information on him or herself would be desirable to confirm homophily between geeks. In sum, those high in geek engagement are more likely to have closer relationships with others who share their specific geek interests, although they are no more likely to have large or dense networks of friends or to be central to their network of friends than those low in geek engagement.
They experience positive self-feelings when engaging in geek activities to the extent that they feel those important in their lives will accept them for engaging in these activities, but they do not show thwarted belongingness needs. The results of these three studies can be reconciled if one does not consider geek engagement to be a guaranteed means of fulfilling belongingness needs.
Perhaps people engage in geek activities partly with the conscious or unconscious goal to achieve belongingness; however, whether they actually succeed may differ depending on the individual. Conversely, fulfilled belongingness may be a byproduct of engaging in geek culture for other reasons, but provides additional reinforcement to continue engaging. Further research that directly assesses the motivations of those engaging in geek culture is needed to fully understand this process.
Studies 1, 6 and 7 addressed the desire for engagement hypothesis. This hypothesis suggests that geek engagement will be highest among people who crave emotional and intellectual stimulation, such as those high in openness to experience, creativity, intelligence, need for cognition, and sensation seeking.
After controlling for demographic variables, geek engagement was significantly related to openness to experience, fantasy proneness, schizotypal personality and dissociation, all known predictors of creativity. In addition, geek engagement was associated not only with creative behavior, but also ideational behavior and positive attitudes toward creativity, although we did not measure the quality of their creative ideas and products. However, geek engagement showed a negative relationship to crystallized intelligence.
This is inconsistent with the commonly held belief that geeks are more intelligent than non-geeks. Overall, although geeks do not appear to particularly need emotional or intellectual stimulation, they require outlets for their creativity, although they may lack intellectual ability and may or may not be creatively talented.
Our predictions were only partially supported with regards to the openness, creativity, and need for stimulation correlated with geek engagement. Of the variables tested, geek engagement appears to be predicted primarily through creativity and its correlates. Neither need for cognition nor sensation seeking appear to play a role. In addition, the negative relationship with crystallized intelligence conflicts with the common belief that geeks are more intelligent than non-geeks.
This may partially be a result of using a brief self-report scale of intelligence. Although the Shipley Institute of Living Scale [ 75 ] is a well-established brief measure of intelligence, a more in-depth IQ battery such as the WAIS-IV [ 78 ] may be needed to detect more nuanced relationships between geek engagement and intelligence.
These results suggest that those who are high in geek engagement are on the apophenia rather than intelligence region of the simplex. This could explain the common belief that geeks are more intelligent because their openness resembles that of individuals high in the intellect region of the circumplex. However, their tendency toward apothenia may determine why some individuals high in openness gravitate toward geek activities while others do not.
We did not predict any relationship with geek engagement and neuroticism or related constructs e. Part of this as shown in Study 1 might be a consequence of age and gender, because when these were covaried the neuroticism correlations dropped to contain zero in the confidence interval. But there are several other possible explanations. For example, geek engagement could be attractive to people who are depressive because it might serve an emotion regulatory function—basically an escape from unpleasant experiences.
Likewise, geek engagement could lead to depression or neuroticism because it isolates one from the mainstream culture and real life. This latter explanation, however, seems unlikely given that our data show geek engagement provides a source of belongingness and does not impair most forms of civic engagement.
Also, in Sample B of Study 1, the autonomy subscale of the BPN and the autonomy and impersonal subscales of the GCOS related to geek engagement in such a way as to suggest thwarted autonomy needs and reduced feelings of effectiveness and intrinsic motivation. Individuals who feel ineffective and controlled in real life and thus may suffer from reduced well-being and depression may increase their well-being through geek activities that support autonomy. This would be consistent with the leisure coping research more broadly [ 80 ].
These findings contrast with the consistent positive relationship between geek engagement and subjective well-being. Research examining whether depression and related constructs are reduced and autonomy is increased during engagement in geek activities can further illuminate this issue. We are aware that several of our findings have the potential to create or perpetuate social stigma for individuals in geek culture.
It is not our intention to link geek culture with dysfunction or antisocial behavior. Although the terms narcissism, fantasy proneness, schizotypy, and dissociation are often used in clinical contexts, the field has moved toward viewing these constructs as dimensional traits, moderate levels of which may be neutral or even adaptive for the individual e. Narcissism in particular has been studied as an adaptive trait by social psychologists [ 82 , 83 ] and moderate levels of schizotypal personality and dissociation have been shown to be related to creativity [ 40 , 41 ], which can be a form of adaptive functioning.
A subfactor resembling schizotypy has been found in the basic personality trait openness to experience [ 79 ] and fantasy proneness includes a nonclinical factor that encompasses daydreaming and enjoyment of fantasy [ 22 ]. Therefore, relationships between these traits and geek engagement should not be interpreted as evidence of psychopathology in geeks. Individuals high in geek engagement in Studies 1—7 above scored high in all of these traits, but barring some depression, reduced crystalized intelligence, and thwarted autonomy, they also showed increased levels of civic engagement and showed no deficits in belongingness, social network size, or future orientation.
Thus we have painted a picture of geeks as different, but not dysfunctional. In this paper we have only begun to explore the reasons people engage in geek culture. As we state up front, this is a beginning rather than the last word on the topic.
We have relied heavily although not exclusively on correlational, self-report data to examine the plausibility of the theories posed above. Experimental, developmental or experience sampling methods would be ideal to more definitively test each of the hypotheses proposed in this paper.
We have foregone more complex mediational analyses that will eventually be required to provide a definitive test of the mechanisms we have proposed here. We also have not conducted research using other ethusiasts as a comparison group; research comparing geeks to other groups containing like-minded individuals e.
Finally, we have focused on these hypotheses at an individual level. Cultural level work exploring major cultural events and demographic information is needed to examine these hypotheses, as geek engagement is a cultural trend as well as an individual behavior. Although there is little reason to expect MTurkers to differ appreciably from the wider population [ 42 , 43 ], use of a wider range of samples in future work would be useful.
Finally, even within geek engagement, more work needs to be done to discern what makes these media interests part of geek culture. For example, what role does escapism play in geek culture? Is escapism the common factor that attracts geeks to a new franchise? Additionally, geeks are theorized to share social norms, values, and customs in addition to common interests [ 6 — 8 ].
Work using techniques from cultural psychology or sociology may help to illuminate these elements of geek culture. Although it primarily concerns entertainment and leisure, geek culture is becoming an increasingly prevalent part of our society. The study of geek culture can tell us much about how individuals engage with media and for what reasons.
Our findings suggest that geek media is especially attractive to narcissists, independent of demographic variables.
Given the trend of rising narcissism in the United States [ 6 ], understanding geek media may shed light on the function media plays in the narcissistic process. We have also found geek engagement to be related to subclinical depression, making it potentially relevant to clinical psychologists as either a cause or a potential remedy for depressed mood.
This paper has taken the first steps toward defining and measuring geek engagement, and has proposed and explored several explanations for its popularity. In addition, this paper takes a unique approach to examining subcultural trends through a personality and individual differences perspective. Much of the past research on group membership has focused on groups in which membership is less freely chosen e.
This approach has the advantage of targeting in the self-selecting natures of subcultures for example, how does the greater majority of fantasy prone white males in geek culture affect the norms of that culture?
We hope to have laid some useful groundwork for future research exploring such phenomena and their impact on recent generations. For each of the following, please indicate to what extent you engage in this activity on a scale from 1 Not at all to 5 A Lot. Note: Bolded items were retained for the final scale and used in studies 3 through 7. Non-bolded items were only used in study 1, samples A and B and were removed during factor analysis. Table Top Role Playing Games e.
Who, etc. For each of the following, please indicate 1 whether or not you participate in this lifestyle and 2 how often and to what extent you participate in this lifestyle. Polyamore consentual nonmonogamous relationships, having more than one lover, etc. Scoring: No items are reverse scored. Full scale is calculated by taking the mean of all bolded items. Subscale scores are calculated by taking the mean of the items in each subscale:.
On a scale from 1 Strongly Disagree to 5 Strongly Agree , please indicate your agreement to the following statements:. Performed the experiments: JM.
Analyzed the data: JM BG. Browse Subject Areas? Click through the PLOS taxonomy to find articles in your field. Abstract Geek culture is a subculture of enthusiasts that is traditionally associated with obscure media Japanese animation, science fiction, video games, etc.
Introduction A geek is traditionally defined as an enthusiast who develops expertise on a topic through exceptional determination and devotion [ 1 ]. What is Geek Culture? Theoretical Accounts of Participation in Geek Culture Although geek culture has been the subject of little psychological study, anthropologists and communications researchers have begun to describe geek culture and provide several theoretical accounts of its widespread appeal [ 1 , 2 , 8 — 11 ].
The Belongingness Hypothesis. The Desire for Engagement Hypothesis. The Present Research The present research aims to: a provide preliminary tests of the above hypotheses by exploring the individual differences and social behaviors associated with geek culture engagement and b operationalize geek culture by creating measures of geek culture involvement and identity.
Download: PPT. Study 1 We first sought to operationalize geek culture by creating a scale that could be used to test our hypotheses.
Methods Procedure. Results Factor analyses and scale validation. Zero order correlations and regressions. Table 3. Testing the great fantasy migration hypothesis. Sample differences. A short scale. Discussion Study 1 created and validated the GCES, while also beginning to test the great fantasy migration and belongingness hypotheses.
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