Doctor Travis Langley, a psychology professor at Henderson State University in Arkansas, says that people enjoy comics mainly for the escapist storylines and the opportunity for exposure to new characters and adventures. The more access people have to comics, in terms of how many comic book stores are in their residential or working community or how many comics are sold in their local grocery store, will determine how much a person will involve themselves in the hobby.

“A lot of people, especially younger people, when they watch these cartoons and movies, they start to see traits in these characters that they like, that they want in themselves that they really don’t have,” says Thomas Seepe, one of Langley’s students who is also helping him with the study. “Like superpowers, for example. You’ll start to see when people work towards an obsession. They want to become these characters. They love these characters. They take that character on as another persona. Why do we go to watch movies? We go to watch to act like we’re there, like we’re Indiana Jones.” (continued)

Go to full article by Syed Ali.