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February 2006
82
The Psychologist Vol 19 No 2
Praying at the altar
of the stars
I
MAGINE for a moment that you are
famous. How different would your life
be? For a start, you would be incredibly
powerful. Feel hungry? Don’t bother
walking to the shop to buy some lunch –
you almost certainly have someone paid to
do that for you. Feel sexy? Just ring up one
of your thousands of admirers if you fancy
a night of passion. There’s always someone
available for you. Feel a little under the
weather? Well, your publicist will simply
have to cancel the afternoon of press
interviews while you put your feet up
and have a nice long bath…
Now imagine, if you have to, that you
are a diehard fan of a famous individual.
How much of your life is spent thinking
about that individual? How much money
have you spent on him or her (concert
tickets, books, travel, souvenirs and other
merchandising)? How important is it to
your identity that you are a fan of that
person? How would you feel if that person
did something bad and it became
embarrassing to be associated with them?
This bizarre state of affairs – a small
group of human beings idolised by a much
larger number – has existed in most
societies to some extent through history.
Very often those idols are never seen by
their admirers because they only exist as
legendary figures in oral narratives, so it
doesn’t matter whether they’re real or not.
Or they may be known, like monarchs or
great military figures, largely through their
representation on money or portrait
paintings. For most people, the idols are
just part of the cultural fabric, some of
them superhumans to emulate, perhaps
with moral significance.
In contemporary society, thanks to the
influence and ubiquity of the mass media,
relationships between idols and their public
have become much more complicated. The
media present us with thousands of figures
from across the world, of all ages, with all
manner of qualities, some without any
discernable ‘qualities’ at all. Media
psychologists use the term ‘parasocial’
to describe the relationships between
audiences and these figures (e.g. Giles,
2002; Horton & Wohl, 1956). They are
‘parasocial’ because they exist beyond
the person’s social network (though some
social psychologists seem reluctant to
acknowledge that they are different from
ordinary relationships, while others think
they are not relationships at all).
Is celebrity then just an extreme form of
popularity? We flock to attractive people in
our immediate environment: even in pre-
school social groups there seem to be
‘stars’ that command more attention than
other children (Hartup, 1992). It is
tempting to think of such individuals as
possessing some magic ‘charisma’ that
seduces the rest of us blindly into their
slipstream – but as Durkheim and others
(e.g. Shils, 1955) have pointed out, the
secret of charisma lies in the interaction
between leaders and followers. The
explosion of celebrity in the last hundred
years can hardly be the result of an excess
of charismatic individuals in the
population!
Therefore, we have to acknowledge
the role that the mass media have played in
creating celebrity culture (Gamson, 1994)
and providing so many different
personalities for audiences to engage with.
The historian Leo Braudy (1997), in a
superb analysis of the fame phenomenon,
argues that until coins appeared as items of
exchange we weren’t used to seeing many
faces other than those of our nearest and
dearest. Movies, radio, television and the
internet have filled our sensory worlds with
faces, voices, bodies and personal histories
that bring celebrities alive in a way
undreamt of centuries ago. When, as part
of an experiment on self-concept, Aron et
al. (1991) asked their participants to
generate visual images of certain
individuals, the vividness of their images
of the movie actress and singer Cher was
higher than that of their own mothers!
It may not be worth trying to explain
the phenomenon of celebrity by examining
celebrities themselves. After all, it is hard
to see what Cher has in common with, say,
Jordan and David Beckham, apart from
celebrity status itself – very much an end-
state attained through different routes
(Giles, 2000). Further, while there are some
recent empirical studies of the desire for
DAVID GILES and JOHN MALTBY
examine the current state of
psychological research on celebrities
and those who ‘worship’ them.
fame and the experience that results from
it (Mrowicki & Giles, 2005; Rockwell &
Giles, 2005), celebrities are a difficult
population for a researcher to recruit
participants from. Instead, social
psychologists have started to explore the
meanings that celebrities hold for the
media audience, and inevitably the more
problematic aspects of what has become
known as ‘celebrity worship’.
Measuring celebrity worship
The first stage of this research field
involved the construction of a measure
of celebrity worship, a psychometric
instrument that attempted to capture
elements of a number of existing measures.
Wann’s (1995) Sport Fan Motivation Scale
identified eight factors predicting sport
fandom: fandom as a source of self-esteem;
as an avenue for escape; as entertainment;
family affiliation; group affiliation;
aesthetic appeal; excitement; and economic
reasons (e.g. betting). Stever’s (1991)
Celebrity Appeal Questionnaire focused
particularly on entertainer and hero/role
model factors. The Parasocial Interaction
Scale of Rubin et al. (1985) emphasised
the one-way friendships between
entertainers and the audience.
Additionally, other authors in the
literature about fan motivation (e.g. Jenson,
1992) kept emphasising ‘psychopathology’
and pathological over-identification with
celebrities. Using these elements,
McCutcheon et al. (2002) introduced the
Celebrity Attitude Scale (CAS), a 34-item
scale that was initially administered to 262
people living in central Florida and then
refined to 17 items. They suggested a
‘probabilistic item hierarchy’ to celebrity
worship, comprising one dimension in
which lower scores on the scale involved
individualistic behaviour, such as watching,
listening to, reading and learning about
celebrities, whilst the higher levels of
worship are characterised by empathy,
over-identification, and obsession with the
celebrity.
Later research using larger UK samples
has produced a similar picture, but factor
analysis has suggested three different
aspects to celebrity worship (Maltby et al.,
2002; Maltby et al., 2005; Maltby et al.,
2001). A recent study among 1723 UK
respondents (781 males, 942 females) aged
between 14 and 62 years suggests that,
when the items of the CAS are subjected
to principal components analysis, three
dimensions to celebrity worship emerge.
These can be described as:
● Entertainment-social. Fans are attracted
to a favourite celebrity because of their
perceived ability to entertain and to
become a source of social interaction
and gossip. Items include ‘My friends
and I like to discuss what my favourite
celebrity has done’ and ‘Learning the
life story of my favourite celebrity is
a lot of fun’.
● Intense-personal. The intense-personal
aspect of celebrity worship reflects
intensive and compulsive feelings about
the celebrity, akin to the obsessional
tendencies of fans often referred to in
the literature. Items include ‘My
favourite celebrity is practically perfect
in every way’ and ‘I consider my
favourite celebrity to by my soul mate’.
● Borderline-pathological. This
dimension is typified by uncontrollable
behaviours and fantasies about their
celebrities. Items include ‘I would
gladly die in order to save the life of
my favourite celebrity’ and ‘If I walked
through the door of my favourite
celebrity’s house she or he would be
happy to see me’.
These different aspects of celebrity worship
vary in terms of the parasocial interaction
between fans and celebrities, particularly
between the intense-personal and
borderline-pathological dimensions.
From the fan’s viewpoint, intense-personal
aspects of celebrity worship are associated
with passive parasocial relationships (e.g.
‘When something bad happens to my
favourite celebrity I feel like it happened to
me’). With borderline-pathological aspects,
the parasocial relationships involve
individuals imagining themselves in
a special relationship with the celebrity.
Other work at the University of
Leicester looking at extreme levels of
celebrity worship (Sheridan et al., 2005)
has suggested that these elements of
parasocial interaction may be extended
to include dimensions that cover active
attempts to contact the celebrity, by letter
and e-mail, and an overwhelming belief by
the person that there is a real relationship
between the celebrity and themselves and
that they are destined to be together at the
exclusion of all others. In this way the
relationship goes beyond the parasocial.
Once a fan begins to ‘stalk’ a celebrity,
and actual contact is made, the relationship
enters a very real dimension, much to the
distress of the recipient.
Personality correlates
What other aspects of behaviour might
celebrity worship be related to? In terms of
personality, it didn’t take a great leap of the
imagination to see that the three-dimension
model of celebrity worship, to a large
extent, paralleled the three dimensions of
Eysenckian personality theory (Eysenck &
Eysenck, 1985): extraversion, neuroticism
and psychoticism. Specifically, the
entertainment-social factor of the Celebrity
Attitude Scale reflects some of the
extraversion personality traits (sociable,
lively, active, venturesome), the intense-
personal factor of the CAS reflects some
of the neuroticism traits (tense, emotional,
moody), and some of the acts described in
the borderline-pathological subscale of the
CAS seem to reflect some of the
psychoticism traits (impulsive, antisocial,
egocentric).
Consequently Maltby et al. (2003)
found a significant positive correlation
between the corresponding pairs of
dimensions (although the effect was
very small for psychoticism/borderline-
pathological pairing). Maltby et al. (2004a)
found that intense-personal aspects of
celebrity worship were associated with
poorer mental heath and that this
relationship can be understood within the
dimensions of neuroticism and a coping
style that suggests disengagement and
failure to acknowledge (let alone deal with)
stressful events.
Cognitive correlates
Research has also explored cognitive
aspects that may be associated with
celebrity worship. McCutcheon et al.
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Celebrity worship
(2003) examined the relationship between
celebrity worship and six cognitive
measures comprising creativity (verbal),
crystallised intelligence, critical thinking,
spatial ability, and need for cognition. High
scores on the CAS consistently showed
negative correlations with these measures
of cognitive ability. The only exception to
this trend was a small but significant
contribution of scores on creativity in
predicting scores on the borderline-
pathological subscale.
Two other studies have looked at
celebrity worship and cognitive flexibility,
which refers to a person’s (a) awareness
that in any given situation there are options
and alternatives available, (b) willingness
to be flexible and adapt to the situation,
and (c) self-efficacy in being flexible.
Martin et al. (2003) and Maltby et al.
(2004b) examined the relationship between
celebrity worship and cognitive flexibility
among USA and UK samples respectively.
Both studies found negative associations
between intense-personal celebrity worship
and cognitive flexibility, suggesting
individuals who engage in celebrity
worship for intense–personal reasons are
unable to consider options or to implement
alternatives to problems.
By implication then, when it comes to
stressful situations of daily life, those who
are intense-personal in their celebrity
worship may be ‘locked’ into a way of
viewing the world, and are therefore unable
to deal with novel or unusual situations.
Such conclusions are consistent with
descriptions of the obsessive or intense-
personal celebrity worshipper as someone
who is unable to deal with the real world,
and can perceive little value in anything
other than their favourite celebrity.
Social and developmental
aspects of celebrity worship
Finally, some social and developmental
aspects of celebrity worship have been
explored among UK samples, and in
particular children and adolescents. In
a first study we (Giles & Maltby, 2004)
examined the parasocial relationships that
adolescents form with favourite celebrities
as secondary attachments. We hypothesised
that celebrity attachments would reflect the
transition from parental attachment to peer
attachments as a function of increasing
emotional autonomy. We found that, after
controlling for age-related effects, high
emotional autonomy was a significant
predictor of celebrity worship, and that
entertainment-social aspects were related
to high attachment to peers and low
attachment to parents.
These findings indicate that the main
function of celebrity attachments in
adolescence may be as an extended social
network – a group of ‘pseudo-friends’ who
form the subject of peer gossip and
discussion. An intense-personal interest in
celebrities was best predicted by low levels
of security and closeness with parents. This
function of celebrity attachment seems to
reflect a more problematic aspect of the
transition towards emotional autonomy. It
seems that celebrities provide adolescents
with a secondary group of pseudo-friends
during a time of increasing autonomy from
parents, but intense focus on a single
celebrity may result from difficulties in
making this transition.
Another more specific focus for these
attachments in adolescents was reported by
Maltby et al. (2005), who examined the
role of celebrity interest in shaping body-
image cognitions. Among three separate
UK samples (adolescents, students and
adults), respondents selected a celebrity of
their own sex whose body/figure they liked
and admired, and then completed the CAS
and two measures of body image.
Significant relationships were found
between attitudes toward celebrities and
body image among female adolescents
only.
It appears that, in female adolescence,
there is an association between intense-
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Celebrity worship
References
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(2004a). Celebrity worship using
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(2003). Celebrity worship and
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personal celebrity worship and body image
between the ages of 14 and 16 years, and
some tentative evidence is found to suggest
that this relationship disappears at the onset
of adulthood (17 to 20 years). These results
are consistent with those authors who stress
the importance of the formation of
parasocial relationships with media figures,
and suggest that parasocial relationships
with celebrities perceived as having a good
body shape may lead to a poor body image
in female adolescents.
Conclusions
While the media frequently debate whether
or not celebrity worship is a good thing for
society (an issue bound up with ideology,
morality, and the responsibilities of the
media themselves), at an individual level
it is more a case of keeping things in
perspective. It appears that entertainment-
social aspects of celebrity worship (e.g.
discussing celebrities with friends) form
an unavoidable part of the adolescent
transition to adulthood, but intense-
personal factors (e.g. private fantasies
about celebrities) may lead to inappropriate
attachment behaviour in extreme cases.
Presently we know very little about
these extreme cases. Large-sample
psychometric research has played an
important role in establishing celebrity
worship as a phenomenon amenable to
quantitative psychological research, but it
has left large gaps in our understanding of
the actual processes involved. For a start,
how does celebrity worship develop in
childhood? How might an intense-personal
celebrity worshipper turn into a potentially
homicidal stalker? What role do celebrities
play in meaning construction for children,
adolescents and specific clinical
populations?
There is a fear on behalf of some media
and communication scholars that even
concepts like parasocial interaction are in
danger of pathologising audiences. They
shouldn’t be. There is no excuse for lazy
attributions about the effects of the media.
A more fully integrated psychology of the
media would form the basis for serious
consideration of phenomena like celebrity
worship; and would enable parents,
clinicians and other professionals to treat
media use itself as largely unproblematic,
but to identify critical moments when
ordinary ‘worship’ can develop into
something more troubling.
■ Dr David Giles is a research tutor for
the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at
Lancaster University. E-mail:
d.c.giles@lancaster.ac.uk.
■ Dr John Maltby is a lecturer in
psychology at the University of Leicester.
E-mail: m148@le.ac.uk.
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DISCUSS AND DEBATE
Are celebrities good for us?
What possible roles do celebrities play in our lives?
Are celebrities different from heroes?
How does our interaction with celebrities differ
from that with other media figures?
Have your say on these or other issues this article
raises. E-mail letters on psychologist@bps.org.uk or post
on our forum at www.thepsychologist.org.uk.