Classifying and Characterizing Fandom Activities: A Focus on Superfans | Thetafan Intelligence

This article examines how digital fandom has grown alongside the rise of online communities, fueled by technologies that enable people with shared interests to connect more easily. Fans now gather on a diverse array of digital platforms, including dedicated forums such as Reddit, Twitch, Discord, and Tiktok, as well as typical social media groups on platforms like X and Instagram. Inevitably, fans’ participation in these environments spans a range of media-related behaviors—views, likes, shares, posts, comments, chatting, streaming, and more—that reflect their levels of engagement.

When fandom becomes a problem: Development of the Problematic Celebrity Fanship Scale | Thetafan Intelligence

There has been considerable research interest in the personality characteristics and mental health of individuals showing excessive levels of celebrity admiration. However, the conceptualization and measurement of potentially problematic levels of engagement with celebrities remain unclear. This study introduces and operationalizes the concept of problematic celebrity fanship within the theoretical framework of behavioral addictions.

Staging the spectacle: the panoptic–synoptic dynamics of prosumer fandom in live PDC darts | Thetafan Intelligence

This article examines how the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) transformed live darts into a highly mediated, carnivalesque spectacle by mobilising the participatory energy of prosumer fans. It explores how surveillance, performance, and control intersect within a distinctive sport entertainment ecosystem.

As AI’s Impact on Human Behavior Grows, Most Models Still Don’t Understand People | Thetafan Intelligence

New research highlights how AI models misrepresent human behavior. Thetafan explores why behavioral intelligence, not alignment, is the next frontier. AI has become exceptionally good at producing answers. What it still struggles to do is understand people. Recent research from Google on behavioral alignment in large language models highlights a growing gap between how AI responds and how humans actually behave. While most of the focus has been on making models more accurate or more “aligned,” the deeper issue is this: “Humans don’t operate on a single answer. We operate across a spectrum of behaviors, opinions, and contradictions.”

Exploring the motivations behind fandom nationalism expression in China | Thetafan Intelligence

Organized fandom has become a defining feature of contemporary subculture, sociocultural dynamics, and even political discourse. In China, however, direct interaction between fan communities and the political sphere remains relatively limited, except in cases involving nationalist movements.

The Language of Fandom | Thetafan Intelligence

Professor Venkata S. Govindarajan studies how language reflects the ups and downs of professional sports fandom. If you’re a fan of sports, you’ve almost certainly engaged in passionate discussions and debates with your favorite team’s fellow supporters during a game.

How Sports Betting Is Changing Fan Behaviour and the Culture of Modern Fandom | Thetafan Intelligence

Sports gambling addiction is increasing and recovery impacts men’s relationships with friends, family and fandom. The rapid expansion of legalized sports betting is reshaping not only the economics of sport, but the culture of fandom itself.

Emotional complexity of fan-controlled comments | Thetafan Intelligence

In China, fan participation in media production is becoming more mainstream and diverse, and fan groups themselves are developing perceptible emotional attributes; thus, studies on affective labor involving fans are gradually increasing in number. Fan-controlled comments are a feature of fan culture that has received much attention due to their rapid growth and influence.

How Sports Betting Is Changing Fan Behaviour and the Culture of Modern Fandom | Thetafan Intelligence

Sports gambling addiction is increasing and recovery impacts men’s relationships with friends, family and fandom. The rapid expansion of legalized sports betting is reshaping not only the economics of sport, but the culture of fandom itself.

What AI Companions Reveal About Data, Loneliness and Human Connection | Thetafan Intelligence

800 million people now have an AI companion. That number deserves a moment. AI companions are no longer a fringe technology. Platforms such as Snapchat’s My AI, Replika and China’s Xiaoice now collectively reach hundreds of millions of users worldwide (Snapchat’s My AI, with over 150 million users, Replika, with an estimated 25 million users and Xiaoice, with 660 million). For many people, these systems provide something traditionally associated with human relationships: emotional acknowledgement, conversation and the sense of being understood.

The cost of being a Fan: Ally Bank Finds Sports Fans Breaking the Bank for the Love of the Game | Thetafan Intelligence

Spending fueled by passion, not planning: 57% of sports fans admit to overspending, yet 85% report having no dedicated savings set aside for expressions of fandom

Nearly 7 in 10 fans (67%) say spending on women's sports has increased or stayed the same, with Gen Z and millennials especially viewing their women's sports fandom as a reflection of personal values.

Research: Brain Mechanisms across the Spectrum of Engagement in Football Fans - A Functional Neuroimaging Study | Thetafan Intelligence

What Happens in the Brain When Football Fans Win or Lose.

Football fandom is often described emotionally. Fans talk about joy, heartbreak, loyalty, and rivalry as if the game lives inside them.

New neuroscience research suggests that description may be more literal than metaphor.

A functional MRI study published in Radiology examined what happens in the brain when football fans watch their team score or concede against a rival. The results reveal how deeply fandom is wired into human emotional and social processing.

For organizations trying to understand modern communities, it highlights something important: fandom isn’t just cultural. It’s neurological.

Challenging Ableism and Disablism in English Football Fandoms | Thetafan Intelligence

Exploring Disabled Football Fans and the Quiet Power of Everyday Resistance

Football fandom is often portrayed as loud, visible and collective. Chants, protests, and coordinated supporter movements dominate the narrative around fan activism. But new research into English football fandom suggests that some of the most meaningful resistance happens in quieter ways.

A recent academic study, ‘ Challenging ableism and disablism in English football fandom: disabled supporters and repertoires of ‘everyday resistance’ by Connor Penfold, Paul Darby & Paul Kitchin, explores the experiences of disabled supporters and reveals how everyday actions inside stadiums are reshaping the culture of football fandom.

Political Analysis: Power Now Runs on Belief and Fandoms Sustain It | Thetafan Intelligence

If global politics feels louder than it used to, that’s because it is. Not louder in substance, necessarily. Louder in tone. Louder in symbolism. Louder in performance. Foreign policy no longer arrives quietly in communiqués and briefing notes. It arrives as spectacle, designed to be felt before it’s understood.

Once you notice that shift, a lot of recent geopolitical behaviour starts to make sense.

Japanese Young People See Oshikatsu Fandoms as Way to Enrich Personal Life | Thetafan Intelligence

The practice of oshikatsu, vigorously expressing fandom for a musician or other entertainer, or even a fictional character or inanimate target of support, is nothing rare in Japan, with nearly 30% of working-age people—and around half of those in their twenties—taking part.

Special Report: China’s Sports Fandoms - The formation mechanism of the “sports fandom circle” in the digital media era | Thetafan Intelligence

The rise of the “sports fandom circle” has become a significant phenomenon in the digital media era, reshaping the emotional and social dynamics of sports fan communities. This study employs grounded theory methodology to analyze web-scraped data from 40 selected accounts on major Chinese social media platforms [Weibo, Xiaohongshu, and Bilibili] over a two-year period.

New Research Reveals Being a Fan is a Family Affair and Brands are Missing a Trick | Thetafan Intelligence

75% of families actively share fandom moments and in 89% of households, kids play the key role in discovery.

New research from Kids Industries (KI) has revealed that fandom is no longer a solo pursuit. Families today aren’t just consuming together – they’re actively sharing, shaping and spreading the fandoms they love across an ever-widening range of categories. These findings challenge outdated notions of how fandoms function - who drives them and how experiences are enjoyed.  

Fans Want More: The Post-COVID Surge in Sports Fandoms | Thetafan Intelligence

In a recent study by Momentum, 73% of self-identified fans said their interest in sports increased over the past five years. And while a pre-pandemic comp is missing, it’s noteworthy that a whopping 93% of the online survey respondents “believe fandom for their favorite team or sport will have a strong and vibrant community 10 years from now.” In comparison, 88% see themselves as “being a fan until they die.”

Scientific Report: Fan Biases, The Myth-Buster | Thetafan Intelligence

Fan Analytics: Creating and Harnessing Consumer and Cultural Passion | Thetafan Intelligence

The success of modern sports, entertainment, political, and other cultural categories is driven by organizations’ ability to create and manage fandom. This book explores fandom from a marketing perspective, providing a multidisciplinary framework for understanding, measuring, and growing fandom.