Karen E. Shackleford is Professor of Psychology in Fielding Graduate University's Media Psychology doctoral program. She is a social psychologist who studies how people understand the social world and experience meaning through connecting with fictional characters and stories. She is the author of How Fantasy Becomes Reality, co-author of Finding Truth in Fiction, Editor of The Oxford Handbook of Media Psychology and Editor of Psychology of Popular Media, a journal of the American Psychological Association. Her TEDx talk is called "Sherlock Holmes and Harry Potter are Real" (tinyurl.com/SherlockHarryPotter).

Nicholas D. Bowman is Associate Professor of Communications in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. He is a communication scientist and media psychologist who studies the cognitive, emotional, physical, and social dimensions of interactive media, from social media to video games and immersive digital worlds. He has published more than 150 peer-reviewed manuscripts and presented more than 200 original studies at regional, national, and international conferences (with more than 30 earning high distinction). He holds affiliate faculty positions focused on games and play in Canada, Mexico, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom.