A Barb, a Behavior Analyst, and a Reinforcement Schedule Walk Into a Twitter Thread

Operantly Conditioned to Stan: A dive into the passionate, persistent, and chaotic world of fandom

Why They’d Do Anything for Beyoncé, BTS, Nicki Minaj or Huda (and how behavior science predicts it all).

Let’s be real, if you’ve ever found yourself refreshing a celeb’s IG stories or tweets, spent rent money on VIP tour tickets, or spiraled when your fave liked someone else’s tweet or post, congrats. You, my friend, are being operantly conditioned. Stan culture isn’t just chaotic. It’s a reinforcement-rich environment, and behavior analysis can explain exactly why it works, and why we love it.

Stanning: (v.) The act of obsessively supporting a celebrity, artist, or fictional character.

Whether you’re part of the Beyhive 🐝, the Barbz 🎀, the Swifties 🧣, or emotionally recovering from being in the Navy without an album for years, you know the intensity is real. But why do people stan so hard?

Behavior is behavior, whether it’s throwing a shoe at your sibling or live-tweeting your fave’s every merch or album drop. Stan behavior is more than just enthusiasm. It’s a full-on operant conditioning masterpiece.

---

At its core, stan behavior is motivated behavior, shaped and maintained through:

• Intermittent reinforcement schedules (they don’t always post… but when they do, we see what happens)

• Conditioned reinforcers (a “like”, retweet or repost from a celeb = dopamine for DAYS)

• Rule-governed behavior (promote and stream the album 13 times or you’re not a real fan)

• Avoidance/escape behavior (muting notifications to cope with tour date FOMO or meet and greets)

Stan culture is a masterclass in reinforcement and I’m obsessed.

---

The Ultimate Fan Trap: Variable Ratio Reinforcement

You never know when your fave will post, reply, or go live. But when they do, your attention gets rewarded. That’s a variable ratio schedule, the same thing that keeps people gambling or checking emails obsessively. It’s powerful, persistent, and hard to extinguish.

The science: Behaviors on variable schedules tend to resist extinction.
The fandom version: “Rihanna hasn’t dropped in 9 years, but what if she drops today?” T-minus never, joking! The suspense and anticipation keeps you invested.

Parasocial Reinforcement & Conditioned Value

Let’s say your fave shares a personal story on a podcast. You feel closer, you engage more. Now they have become a conditioned reinforcer. You don’t need a follow-back, their presence on social media alone has reinforcing properties.

“I felt seen when she said she also has social anxiety.”
“He liked a fan’s art once and used it on an album cover, so I started posting mine too.”

That’s social reinforcement at a parasocial level, and it can get sticky.

Extinction Bursts When Your Fave Disappoints

When the reinforcement stops, what happens?

Cue the rage tweets, TikToks titled “They let the fame get to their head” or meltdown threads in a stan community. That’s called an extinction burst, an uptick in intensity before the behavior fades. The behavior = your devotion and the reinforcer = attention or validation. If they stop delivering, your brain (and thumbs) spiral. When reinforcement stops, the stan behavior doesn’t vanish quietly, it flares. That spike in reactive tweets or TikToks? Classic extinction burst. The behavior (obsessive support) is trying one last time to contact reinforcement (attention, recognition, connection).

You see it too don’t you?

Stan Rituals or Rule-Governed Behavior

“I’m staying up till the drop.” “Stream in airplane mode.” “Buy from this link so it counts toward Billboard.”

These aren’t instincts, they’re learned, socially reinforced rules and when fans follow them they contact generalized reinforcement in the form of acceptance, status and clout. In other words, being a "good fan" is a behavior shaped by a community-wide reinforcement system.

Fandom or Group Contingency Paradise

Stan culture thrives on interdependent group contingencies:

“If we all stream, we can hit #1.” “Everyone post with this hashtag at 5PM.” “Vote on this app every Friday.” Love island watchers, I’m looking at you.

It’s behavior shaping at scale and it works, I love watching it work.

---

What Sets Off Stan Behavior?

Before the behavior, there’s always a trigger (aka antecedent). In stan culture, it might be, a new album or trailer drop or a celeb being attacked by another fandom (cue online war). I’m sure we can guess what happens next.

Stan behavior comes in many flavors, making memes and fan edits, tweeting “MOTHER” 10 times under a single post, defending your fave like a lawyer at the Hague (shoutout Bardigang and the Barbz) or buying every version of the same album (even if every song is just 20 seconds longer)

So Why Do They Keep Doing It

Why does stan behavior persist? Reinforcement and lots of it. Social reinforcement in the form of likes, retweets, replies from mutuals and hit tweets. Occasional celebrity interaction, like a comment or retweet from Nicki? That's gold-standard variable ratio reinforcement. Community belonging, feeling like a part of something “big”. Escape characterized by avoiding boredom, loneliness, or real-life stress. Control & power fueled by canceling someone or participating in trending discourse—probably feels impactful.

Stan culture shows how powerful non-tangible reinforcers can be, how communities shape behavior and how obsession isn’t always maladaptive, it’s motivated and reinforced. If we can analyze stan behavior, we can support healthy fan engagement, understand digital communities and apply behavior principles to media literacy. Yes, even the Swifties may need a Behavior Analyst sometimes.

These are all behaviors we can support, reframe, or shape through function-based intervention (even if we’re just having fun analyzing ourselves).

With the likes of Cowboy Carter, Love Island, single and album drops, what is your most reinforced stan behavior? Are you standing in long lines or refreshing a tour merch drop every 6 minutes? Are you feeling particularly emotional over a 3-second IG Story or training your whole nervous system to survive a Ticketmaster queue?

---

What celebrity, fictional character, or creator do YOU stan and what do you think reinforces that behavior? Are you in it for the community, the identity, the control, the chaos? Drop a comment. Be honest. We’re all behavior under the skin. Let’s behaviorally analyze the fandom madness together.