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Comment by ben_w | Hacker News Reader

I wonder how much this applies to furries. How often is a fursona “the real me” vs roleplay? I’ve witnessed both in different individuals, and also both within a single person (primary ‘sona and some other separate ones which are just role playing).

Adjective Species probably had an article on this, though it also reminds me of the discussions about therianthropy, contherianthropes, and New Age discussions of the use of masks in tribal religions.

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Yep, this is the comment I came here for!

On a related note, I attended Dr. Gerbasi's research results at Anthrocon a few years ago, and she noted from her furry survey that the experimental group (furries) rated themselves higher in response to questions such as "I feel good about myself" versus the control group. (her college students)

As a graduate student myself I’d be wary of taking students as a control group.

That might just be what you get with a WEIRD control group though.

Anthrocon was probably also dominated by the Western Educated Industrialised Rich and Democratic subset.

Might be related to the oxytocin furries get from all the snuggling, though.

It could also be biased by age; I assume that the furry subject group skewed older than the students (or at least that the students were a more tightly restricted age group). I know I felt far more self-assured at 30 than I did at 20.

The question is if this is caused by having an alter ego, or (for example) by the fact that these people experience more control over what they look like.

Anyway, whatever the reason, perhaps it is also why lots of people like to get tattoos.

I do think furries - or really, anyone wearing something that hides or shields them from the world - can "come out their shell" more easily.

I've heard similar with people wearing face masks nowadays, and personally I had something like an "out of body" experience when I first started wearing glasses. There was a barrier between me and the world.

It’s not about hiding, it’s about expressing. How people think of their inner selves comes to the fore. The (relative) anonymity is a helpful thing too of course, but mostly for the person to be able to let go of their normal selves.

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