The Power of Us

The Power of Us

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The Power of Us
"I'm your biggest fan!" Jay talks fandom and politics on the Freakonomics Podcast
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"I'm your biggest fan!" Jay talks fandom and politics on the Freakonomics Podcast

Issue 57: We recap a discussion of The Power of Us in the latest Freakanomics podcast

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Dominic Packer & Jay Van Bavel
Nov 15, 2022
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The Power of Us
The Power of Us
"I'm your biggest fan!" Jay talks fandom and politics on the Freakonomics Podcast
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Last week, Jay was a guest on the Freakonomics podcast where he talked about how being a part of a fandom (or more generally, group) changes your behavior and self-representation. You can listen to the episode or read the full transcript here.

Jay explained that fandom promotes group identity and can therefore help us feel more connected. But it can also make us antagonistic towards people who are fans of a rival entity. Because it can arouse such strong feelings, fandom is useful even to organizations and marketing.

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