Pale and Geeky: Prevailing Stereotypes of Anime Fans (original) (raw)

Abstract

Furries report in qualitative and quantitative studies that they feel discriminated against by the general public, but there are no published empirical data to support these claims. In this study we surveyed (N = 118) fantasy sport fans online to quantify their assessments of three fan groups: furry, brony, and anime. Using 50 as a neutral point, fantasy sport fans were given a feeling thermometer test and asked to rate each fan group on a scale from 1 (extremely negative) to 100 (extremely positive). Participants who did not know what a furry, brony, or anime fan was were asked to write “NA” in the response field, and they were deleted from individual analyses. First we assessed how fantasy sport fans rated themselves, furries, bronies, and anime fans using a one-sample t-test with a test value of 50, which represented a neutral position. The results indicated that fantasy sport fans regard themselves significantly more favourably than neutral. However, fantasy sport fans assessed furries, bronies, and anime fans significantly less favorably than neutral. Within-subjects t-tests were conducted to determine how fantasy sport fans believed that a typical fantasy sport fan would assess other fan groups. Fantasy sport fans reported that they believed a typical fantasy sport fan would be more favorable of an anime fan than either a brony or furry fan. We also assessed how negatively fantasy sport fans personally felt about fantasy sport fans, furries, bronies and anime fans. Fantasy sport fans felt significantly more favorable toward fantasy sport fans than any other group. They also felt significantly more favorable about anime fans than either bronies or furries, which they viewed equally negatively. The results of this study provide evidence that furries and bronies face significantly greater negative affect than do anime fans when assessed by fantasy sport fans.

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