Personna

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A Personna is role playing exercise sometimes engaged in by convention members. Participants will take on the appearance, clothing, mannerisms, speech, etc. of a character other than themselves, and then act as if they are that person for extended periods of time. In one sense it is an act or performance, in another it may be how that person truly wishes to be perceived by the fannish community.

This is very closely aligned (one presumes) with the concept of Persona (as used by Carl Jung), where the "persona" is the public "false/facade" identity presented to the world to handle situations and not representative of the person's internal personality.

But more generally, many fans are dissatisfied with their day to day lives and so have SF and Fantasy as escapist literature, and like to take on a different persona at conventions so they can be someone they aren't allowed to be in the "real world". Others just like to have a silly name on their badge!