IMPLICATION OF IDOL PERSONALITY, FAN CLUB’S SELF-IDENTITY, AND GROUP COHESIVENESS ON CHINESE FAN CLUB’S WORSHIP BEHAVIOR: A CASE STUDY OF WANG YIBO FAN CLUB IMPLICATION OF IDOL PERSONALITY, FAN CLUB’S SELF-IDENTITY, AND GROUP COHESIVENESS ON CHINESE FAN CLUB’S WORSHIP BEHAVIOR: A CASE STUDY OF WANG YIBO FAN CLUB Dan Chen This Independent Study Manuscript Presented to The Graduate School of Bangkok University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Communication Arts 2020 ©2020 Dan Chen All Right Reserved Dan, C. Master of Communication Arts in Global Communication, August 2020, Graduate School, Bangkok University. Implication of Idol Personality, Fan Club’s Self-Identity, and Group Cohesiveness on Chinese Fan Club’s Worship Behavior: A Case study of Wang Yibo Fan Club (131 pp.) Advisor: Assoc. Prof. Pacharaporn Kesaprakorn, Ph.D. ABSTRACT This study aimed to examine the influence of Wang Yibo’s idol personality on Chinese youth fans’ self-identity and group cohesiveness and to examine the influence of Wang Yibo’s Chinese youth fans’ self-identity and group cohesiveness with his fan club on of their worship behavior. The survey examined two hundred Wang Yibo Chinese youth fans. The mean and standard deviation were being tabulated and analyzed using Multiple Regression to test the hypotheses with the significance of 0.05. The findings found that: (1) Wang Yibo’s idol personality in fan culture significantly influenced his Chinese youth fans’ self-identity and group cohesiveness. The significant positive predictors of Wang Yibo’s idol personality that influenced Chinese youth fans’ self-identity were sincerity and competence, respectively. And, the highest positive predictor of idol personality was sincerity but sophistication was found to be significant predictor of group cohesiveness. (2) Self-identity of Wang Yibo’s fans club was significant predictor of group cohesiveness with Wang’s Yibo’s fan club. However, only appreciation significantly predicted group cohesiveness while enthusiasm and social interaction had insignificant effect to their group cohesiveness; and (3) Self-identity of Wang’ Yibo’s fan club and group cohesiveness were significant predictors of his Chinese youth fans’ worship behavior. Keywords: Idol personality, Self-identity, Group cohesiveness, Worship behavior, Chinese idol industry vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my advisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pacharaporn Kesaprakorn, whose expertise was so valuable in completing this Independent Study report. Your insightful feedback pushed me to sharpen my thinking and brought my work to a higher level. In addition, I would like to thank my best brother who has supported and advised me while writing this report. Thank you very much for motivating me to move on when I was lazy, and for providing a lot of academic study experience and suggestions. We discussed and encouraged each other, which made me feel the charm of academic study. I hope that in the future study, we can still support each other. Finally, I want to thank my family who has fully supported me, especially my parents. Thank you for your contribution to me. They have encouraged me to continue to complete this study when I encountered difficulties and wanted to give up. And also friends who support me, thank you for talking with me when I am upset, and encouraging me to move on. Special thanks to the Graduate School and School of Communication Arts have provided knowledge and services to me during my Master’s degree study. When I successfully completed this study, I knew that my efforts were not wasted. I hope that in the future, I can make greater progress in this field. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.............................................................................................vi LIST OF TABLES..........................................................................................................x LIST OF FIGURES .....................................................................................................xii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION...................................................................................1 1.1 Problem Statement and Rationale ...........................................................................1 1.2 Objective of Study....................................................................................................8 1.3 Scope of Study..........................................................................................................9 1.4 Research Questions................................................................................................12 1.5 Significance of the Study........................................................................................12 1.6 Definitions of Terms...............................................................................................13 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW.......................................................................17 2.1 Past Study on Celebrity Worship and idol fan culture ..........................................17 2.1.1 Celebrity Worship ...............................................................................................17 2.1.2 Background of Chinese Idol Fan Culture............................................................21 2.1.3 The Development of China Idol Fan Culture......................................................22 2.2 Idol Worship and Idol Personality..........................................................................24 2.2.1 Key Dimensions of Idols’ Personality.................................................................24 2.2.2 Idol Public Persona..............................................................................................26 2.3 Fan Identity Construction.......................................................................................27 viii TABLE OF CONTENTS (Continued) Page CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW (Continued) 2.3.1 Idol Fans’ Self-identity........................................................................................28 2.3.2 Idol Fan and Social Identity.................................................................................28 2.3.3 Idol Fan and Collective Identity..........................................................................30 2.3.4 Idol Fans and Culture Identity.............................................................................30 2.4 Idol Fan Groups and Group Cohesiveness.............................................................31 2.5 Youth Audiences’ Idol Worship Behavior...............................................................32 2.6 Social Media and Identity.......................................................................................34 2.7 Related Theories.....................................................................................................35 2.7.1 Uses and Gratifications Theory...........................................................................35 2.7.2 The Looking-glass Self Theory...........................................................................36 2.7.3 Social Cognitive Theory......................................................................................37 2.8 Hypothesis(es)........................................................................................................37 2.9 Theoretical Framework..........................................................................................38 CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ..........................................................39 3.1 Research Design.....................................................................................................39 3.2 Population and Sample Selection...........................................................................40 3.3 Research Instrument...............................................................................................40 3.4 Instrument Pretest...................................................................................................45 3.5 Data Collection Procedure .....................................................................................47 ix TABLE OF CONTENTS (Continued) Page CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY (Continued) 3.6 Data Analysis and Interpretation............................................................................47 3.7 Demographic Data of the Samples.........................................................................49 CHAPTER 4 RESEARCH RESULTS ........................................................................54 4.1 Summary on Findings of Descriptive Analysis .....................................................54 4.2 Hypotheses Findings and Testing ..........................................................................62 CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSION........................................................................................73 5.1 Summary of the Descriptive Findings and Discussion .........................................73 5.2 Summary of the Hypothesis Testing and Discussion.............................................76 5.3 Conclusion of the Study.........................................................................................83 5.4 Limitations of the Study.........................................................................................86 5.5 Recommendation for Future Application...............................................................87