Around 30 students and community members gathered Friday in Newcomb’s Commonwealth Room in the name of Furscience. The University’s furry club, Anthropomorphic Within University, hosted a Zoom presentation with social psychologist Dr. Courtney Plante to learn about his team’s renowned study called the International Anthropomorphic Research Project — which they commonly refer to as “Furscience.”
The “furry fandom,” as it is colloquially known, is a group of people whose personalities are defined in large part by their strong interest in anthropomorphic animals, which are animal characters that adopt human-like traits — both behaviorally and physically — such as those found in Disney movies or on children’s toys. A large component of the furry identity is the “fursona” or the animal-themed persona or avatar that 94 percent of furries create to represent themselves.
Furscience, Plante’s research project, is a collection of studies that aim to understand the psychology relative to furries in comparison to that of the general public. Besides being lead data analyst for the Furscience project and an associate psychology professor at Bishop’s University, Plante is a proud member of the “furry fandom” himself. Nearly 14 years in the making, his comprehensive Furscience research consists of about 50 total studies with 30,000 furries across 70 countries…