HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Marshall University’s psychology experts once again took center stage at Comic-Con International in Anaheim, California, July 25-28. The event featured over 350 panel discussions with actors, writers and luminaries from television, movies, gaming and comics.
Dr. Keith Beard, director of Marshall’s Psy.D. program, expressed excitement about the unique opportunity.
“We have been fortunate enough to be able to present at Comic-Con International’s conference multiple times for more than a decade,” Beard said. “Having Marshall and Comic-Con support and see the value in our research has been great. We have enjoyed the experience and being able to talk about Marshall University, the research we are doing, and the results of that research with an audience that isn’t your typical crowd that we present to at a psychology-focused conference. This research has even led to the publication of a book.”
The panels they presented included: “Psychology and Nostalgia,” which looked at the toys and cartoons people grew up with and personality factors for why they hold on to them, collect them and enjoy them, as well as “Action and Escape with Psychology,” which looked at action movies and personalities of people who like and dislike them.
Beard, along with fellow panelists Dr. April Fugett, master’s program coordinator for psychology at Marshall, Assistant Professor Dr. Britani S. Black, and student Morgan Kinsey, engaged the Comic-Con participants in a lively discussion.
Black emphasized the importance of presenting research to a broad audience.
“We hope that people will take away from our presentations that research can be fun as well as informative,” Black said. “It is important for us to look at a variety of different topics from a research perspective so that we can critically and systematically understand topics we are studying. For us, it is looking at how psychological factors like personality, love and trauma inform what people like and engage with in the pop culture world.”
For more information about their research and the recently published book, Psychology and Pop Culture: An Empirical Adventure, visit Amazon.
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