Getting in Character: The Psychology Behind Cosplay

But for people who cosplay — dress in costumes to role-play characters from movies, TV shows, books, comics and video games — the challenge of transformation is one they happily accept at various times year-round. Cosplayers can invest considerable time, money and effort into crafting or commissioning head-to-toe presentations that are one-of-a-kind. Cosplayers and psychologists who study the phenomenon reveal the individual and community features that make dressing up so enticing an