Evaluation

Based on the paucity of research on cosplay, I wanted to learn more about cosplayers, how often they cosplay the amount of time and money they devote to preparing for cosplaying, as well as their psychological motivations and experiences. Additionally, because some cosplay includes masks, helmets, and other props that disguise the face, we were curious to understand how covering one’s face during cosplay affects the sense of self. Whereas we had no hypotheses at the outset about the demographic of cosplayers or their cosplay behaviour, based on previous research on mask-wearing we hypothesized that wearing a mask while cosplaying would lead cosplayers to feel less like themselves, as have participants in previous research that didn’t involve cosplayers. Research Project In orders to explore shared characteristics among cosplayers, we developed a survey of self-report items spanning demographic, behavioural, psychological, and social questions. The final survey, included 20- 25 items (depending on whether certain questions were answered 'yes' or 'no') and the results described below were analysed from responses between 13 Febuary 2016 and 27 April 2016; no additional respondents went to the website and completed the survey and so the survey was considered 'closed' at that date. The people included gender, age of respondent, and ethnicity. Behavioural questions included age of first cosplay, number of times cosplayed each year, number of hours preparing costumes, and the average amount of money spent on costumes. Psychological questions included the reasons respondent chooses to cosplay, reasons respondent chooses a particular costume/character, and the impact of mask-wearing on self-awareness. Finally, social questions about cosplay included multiple-choice items querying whether respondent cosplayed alone or with others.

Survey respondents were recruited via the internet, including social networks (Facebook), blogs and micro-blogs (Twitter). So, participants were considered eligible if they self-labelled as a cosplayer, spoke English, and had access to the Internet. A total of 198 participants responded and were included in the analysis. Sixty-five percent of the sample identified as female. The average age of participants was 28.4 years old with an age range of 15-50.

Table 2 ( In sketch book) According to the survey, the majority of respondents spend between £100.00-£399.00 per costume (30% reported between £100.00-£199.00 and 24% reported between £200.00- £399.00 per costume). Nine percent of respondents reported spending £0-£50.00, 16% of respondents reported spending £51.00-£99.00, and 13% of respondents reported spending over £400.00 per costume. Eighty-two percent of respondents reported that they construct their own costumes.

The total time spent preparing costumes varied between 1 to 450 hours (based on 112 respondents). The average time spent preparing a costume was 44.16 hours. Each respondent was asked to answer questions about their 'most time-intensive costume'. According to responses, these types of costumes took an average of 133.58 hours (based on 118 respondents). The most recent time-intensive costume took 47.3 hours on average (based on 128 respondents).

Psychological Aspects of Cosplay

Respondents were asked to rank order their reasons for cosplaying. Unfortunately, the hosting software for the survey allowed respondents to rate more than one choice as #1. As noted in Table 3(in sketch book ), 'Fun' was the most endorsed top reason why respondents cosplay, with 101 respondents rating it their top choice. Next was 'Because I like the character', with 78 'top choice' endorsements, followed in popularity by 'A vehicle for creative expression', endorsed by 73 respondents as their top choice. Additional information can be found in Table 3( in sketch book ). 

Social Aspects of Cosplay

 Only 7% of respondents had never cosplayed with other people, with the most frequently endorsed option begin cosplaying with others 2-5 times per year (48% of respondents, N=86; see Table 7 for additional information in book )

This study provides information on a sample of cosplayers. For the majority of our respondents, cosplay represents a significant commitment in time (cosplaying three or more times per year and spending an average of 40 hours preparing each costume), and a non-trivial outlay of money (at least £100 per costume). Although the most popular #1 motivation for cosplaying was “fun,” the next top-ranked reason was because I liked the character'.

Responses to the question about the reasons for the choice of character illuminate the importance of the relationship between the cosplayer and the character: The top three out of four reasons (see Table 4 in sketch book ) were identification with some aspect of the character: its psychological characteristics, some aspect of the character’s history, or the character’s physical appearance.

Maybe that is true for cosplayers and the characters they portray: Some similarity between the cosplayer and character increases identification, which in turn increases liking and a desire to be it temporarily that character. First, we found that different respondents had different experiences of themselves when masked—there was no consistent pattern of their responses (see Table 5 in book ). One explanation for this result is that their experience of being masked Is dependent on the specific masked costume.

In addition, whereas past research found that masked participants felt less self-aware while masked, the majority of our respondents felt no difference in self-awareness when masked. Also some of our respondents felt more aware. An equal number felt less aware. This difference makes sense in that cosplayers’ motivations for masking are different from that of participants in earlier studies who were asked to mask as part of a laboratory experiment. Why there is variation among cosplayers is unclear. The fact that a subset of cosplayers felt more self-aware when masked (Table 6 in book ), and felt more like themselves (Table 5 in book) can be explained by a ironic effect that masking may have for some people: The anonymity that comes with masking may, ironically, allow a subgroup of cosplayers to more feel “unmasked” and liberated from their everyday appearance, allowing their true “inner” self to feel more prominent.