Fandom: Fandom refers to a community of people who are passionate about something, whether it’s a film, a band, a television show, a book, or a sports team, a brand or an operating system. A die-hard fan is someone who is strongly or fanatically determined or devoted, strongly resisting change.
And the following, the craze, the obsession, the advocacy , the possessiveness, the blind faith, the brand love continues unabashed even though their team is losing or the film is a flop or their single album has under-delivered or the TV Show ratings are nothing to write home about. Our affiliations give us a sense of status and identity within a community. Remember- People like us do things like this. Birds of the same feather…
This also extends to our choice of automobiles, noodles or our leanings to a political party or a leader. Rational has nothing to do with this. The emotional connection is so strong that rules of confirmation bias( due respect to Cialdini) get re-written. Belief is created even when reason and possibility dictated otherwise.
The connection with a logo or a team or an individual is so all-encompassing that the fan continues to turn up in large numbers even though the team is losing or the celebrity is well and over the hill to command that blind adulation, or the leader is not worthy of advocacy.
If you have earned and enhanced your self-worth by being the devoted, selfless, loyal fan, you can use your voice to address the wrongs that the leadership is doing because when fans speak up, there is a high probability that the other side will listen. Be generous with your voice. Therein lies your ‘test‘.