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Is Gambling Addiction Related to Celebrity Addiction?
Abstract and Figures
Past research suggests that gambling addiction and celebrity addiction may share common features. A survey containing two measures of gambling addiction and two measures of celebrity addiction were administered to 182 adult participants from the United States recruited through Mechanical Turk to determine the nature of the relationships among these scales. As expected, the gambling measures correlated positively with each other and the measures of addiction to celebrities correlated positively with each other. As hypothesized, both gambling measures correlated positively with both measures of addiction to celebrities. The authors discussed possible causes for the latter finding. These findings imply that persons who are addicted to gambling may be susceptible to other addictions, specifically an addiction to celebrities. Furthermore, these two types of addictions share several attitudes and behaviors.
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... According to the theoretical model by McCutcheon et al. (2002), celebrity worship can be considered as a continuum ranging from a healthy enthusiasm to compulsive behaviors and pathological feelings towards a favorite celebrity. Recent studies have reported a positive relationship between celebrity worship and behavioral addictions such as gambling addiction (Lian, Aruguete, Huynh, McCutcheon, & Murtagh, 2019), compulsive buying (Reeves, Baker, & Truluck, 2012) and problematic Internet (Zsila, McCutcheon, & Demetrovics, 2018) and social media use (Zsila, Urbán, McCutcheon, & Demetrovics, 2020). ...
... Celebrity worship shares several common features with behavioral addictions. For instance, both constructs have been associated with poor mental health (e.g., symptoms of depression and anxiety), impulsivity and impairment in everyday functioning (e.g., reduced school/work performance, deteriorated social relationships, poor cognitive ability) (Brailovskaia, Rohmann, Bierhoff, Margraf, & Köllner, 2019;Grant, Lust & Chumberlain, 2019;Lian et al., 2019;McCutcheon et al., 2014;Sansone & Sansone, 2014). The dynamics of the motivational forces driving the absorption with a favorite celebrity can take on an addictive component that sometimes leads to more extreme attitudes and behaviors, like stalking (see McCutcheon, Scott, Aruguete, & Parker, 2006;McCutcheon, Aruguete, McCarley, & Jenkins, 2016), that are needed to sustain an individuals' satisfaction with this one-sided, parasocial relationship. ...
... A recent study has supported this assumption (Shabahang et al., 2020), reporting a positive association between celebrity worship and male fans' addictive potential. Although previous studies have found associations between celebrity worship and some behavioral addictions (e.g., Lian et al., 2019;Reeves et al., 2012), there is a lack of research investigating the contribution of celebrity admiration to psychoactive substance use and selfharming tendencies. This study aims to provide a more nuanced understanding of the role of celebrity worship in these health-risk behaviors. ...
Recently, psychoactive substance use and suicidal behaviors have become general themes in popular culture, raising concerns that celebrity admirers may have become more affected in such health-risk behaviors. This study aimed to provide a more nuanced understanding of the role of celebrity worship in psychoactive substance use and self-harming behaviors. An online questionnaire was used recruiting 1,763 Hungarian adult participants (66.42% male, M age = 37.2 years, SD = 11.4). Linear and binary logistic regressions were performed to investigate the contribution of celebrity worship to psychoactive substance use and self-harming behaviors for males and females. It was found that higher celebrity worship levels consistently predicted intentional self-injury and suicide attempts for both genders. Generally high levels of celebrity worship also predicted drunkenness and the use of illicit drugs and sedatives or tranquilizers for nonmedical purpose among males, while these behaviors were predicted only by excessive levels of celebrity worship among females. However, the explanatory power of celebrity worship for psychoactive substance use and self-harming behaviors was small for both genders (below 5%), indicating that these health-risk behaviors are largely independent of celebrity admiration. The present findings also suggest that individuals with excessive celebrity worship are more likely to encounter severe, potentially life-threatening excesses than more benign forms of maladaptive behaviors relating to substance use.
... Therefore, active members of fan groups may be more susceptible to developing an excessive, one-sided emotional bond with a favorite celebrity that can interfere with mental health and other life aspects (e.g., real-life social connections, duties). Indeed, previous studies provided evidence that celebrity worship and maladaptive daydreaming were both associated with reduced school/work performance, deteriorated social relationships, and poor cognitive ability (Grant et al., 2019, Lian et al., 2019, Sansone & Sansone, 2014. Therefore, the overlap between these two constructs might explain the considerable overlap between celebrity worship and maladaptive daydreaming tendencies in fans. ...
Interest in celebrities and their impact on those who are strongly attracted to them has been growing for several decades. The present study was designed to shed light on relationships between attraction to a favorite celebrity (celebrity worship) and maladaptive daydreaming, engagement seeking, and body appreciation. Measures of each were administered online to 1,110 Hungarian adult women (M age = 30.6 years, SD = 12.4). Results showed that high levels of maladaptive daydreaming and engagement seeking were strong predictors of high levels of celebrity worship for both single women and those in a relationship. Personal contact with a favorite celebrity predicted higher celebrity worship levels only for women in a relationship. Moreover, single women obtained significantly higher scores on the measure of celebrity worship than those women who reported being in a relationship, controlling for age and educational level. Women who scored extremely high on celebrity worship were significantly more likely to be maladaptive daydreamers than women who scored lower on celebrity worship. These findings provide a nuanced picture of individual differences in celebrity worship.
Keywords: body appreciation; celebrity worship; engagement; maladaptive daydreaming; relationship status
... An early study by Martin et al. [2] proposed that celebrity worship may interfere with the information processing of individuals who are more prone to get absorbed in the personal details of a celebrity. Celebrity worship, as an excessive behavior, was also associated with several behavioral addictions (e.g., problematic Internet and social media use [7,8], compulsive buying [9], gambling addiction [10]), and these problematic behaviors are known to have negative effects on school/work performance, social relationships and cognitive functioning [11]. Therefore, it can be expected that excessive involvement with an admired celebrity may interfere with cognitive performance due to the limited ability to focus on other things than the celebrity. ...
Background
Almost two decades of research produced mixed findings on the relationship between celebrity worship and cognitive skills. Several studies demonstrated that cognitive performance slightly decreases with higher levels of celebrity worship, while other studies found no association between these constructs. This study has two aims: (1) to extend previous research on the association between celebrity worship and cognitive skills by applying the two-factor theory of intelligence by Cattell on a relatively large sample of Hungarian adults, and (2) to investigate the explanatory power of celebrity worship and other relevant variables in cognitive performance.
Methods
A cross-sectional study design was used. Applying an online survey, a total of 1763 Hungarian adults (66.42% male, M age = 37.22 years, SD = 11.38) completed two intelligence subtests designed to measure ability in vocabulary (Vocabulary Test) and digit symbol (Short Digit Symbol Test). Participants also completed the Celebrity Attitude Scale and the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale. Subjective material wealth, current family income and general sociodemographics were also reported by participants.
Results
Linear regression models indicated that celebrity worship was associated with lower performance on the cognitive tests even after controlling for demographic variables, material wealth and self-esteem, although the explanatory power was limited.
Conclusions
These findings suggest that there is a direct association between celebrity worship and poorer performance on the cognitive tests that cannot be accounted for by demographic and socioeconomic factors.
... Others, such as Maltby and colleagues (2001), have found a correlation between borderline-pathological celebrity worship and symptoms of anxiety and depression. Celebrity worship has also been linked to obsessive thoughts (Brooks, 2021), fantasy proneness and dissociation , self-harm and substance abuse (Zsila et al., 2020), eating disorders , and problematic gambling (Lian et al., 2019). It's also been associated with a number of social and interpersonal problems (McCutcheon, Gillen et al., 2016), including a propensity toward neuroticism, narcissism, and a lack of humility (Ashe et al., 2005;Greenwood et al., 2018;Huynh & McCutcheon, 2021;, and has even been linked to a willingness to not convict a fictitious celebrity accused of murder . ...
Researchers across disciplines have been studying the psychology of fans for decades. Seeking to better understand fan behavior and the various factors motivating fans, researchers have studied dozens of variables in hundreds of studies of different fan groups. To date, however, there have been relatively few attempts to integrate this sizable body of work, pulling together findings across from the field to with a broader, more holistic perspective. This book does exactly that, identifying and concisely summarizing research on 28 separate lines of inquiry on the psychology of fans and integrating it all into an empirically-validated model known as the CAPE model. Useful as a textbook for a fandom studies course and as a handbook for fan researchers, this book is essential reading for anyone looking to better understand the state of fan psychology and wanting to conduct their own research exploring the ins and outs of fans of all sorts!
... Many studies support the Absorption-Addiction Model showing that more intense levels of celebrity admiration are associated with a range of maladaptive psychological states including anxiety and depression (Maltby et al., 2001), neuroticism ), narcissism (Ashe et al., 2005Greenwood et al., 2018), obsessive thoughts (McCutcheon, Aruguete et al., 2016), loneliness (Ashe & McCutcheon, 2001), a lack of humility and dissociation (Maltby et al., 2006). Higher levels of celebrity admiration have also been associated with maladaptive behaviors, including problematic interpersonal behaviors (McCutcheon, Gillen, et al., 2016), excessive gambling (Lian et al., 2019), disordered eating (Aruguete et al., 2014), a tendency to exonerate a fictitious movie star Journal of Studies in Social Sciences and Humanities,2021,7(1), 66-75, E-ISSN: 2413-9270 charged with a serious crime (Wong et al., 2010), intentional self-injury and suicide attempts (Zsila et al.,2020), and elective cosmetic surgery (Maltby & Day, 2011). Collectively, research on celebrity worship shows that it tends to be related to poor mental health (Maltby et al., 2003;Zsila et al., 2020). ...
Information about celebrities has steadily increased over time and is currently available every day in multiple venues. Our study examines whether extreme interest in celebrities has increased over the past 20 years. The Celebrity Attitude Scale appeared in its 23-item iteration in 2001 and has been used extensively since then, making it possible to observe trends in the strength of celebrity admiration over the past two decades. Using archival methods, we gathered data from 35 studies (2001-2021) that included US participants who completed the Celebrity Attitude Scale. We established objective criteria for determining the proportion of participants from each study who qualified as "celebrity worshippers." Our results indicate that celebrity worship increased dramatically from 2001 to the present. The implications of increases in celebrity worship are important, given research showing that high levels of celebrity worship are often associated with undesirable attitudes and behaviors, such as anxiety, depression, obsessive thoughts, suicide attempts, excessive gambling, disordered eating patterns, and difficulty maintaining intimate relationships.
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether celebrity admiration is associated with personal relative deprivation, impulsivity, and materialism. We gave the Celebrity Attitude Scale, the Personal Relative Deprivation Scale, the MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status, a subscale from the Consideration of Future Consequences-14, and the Material Values Scale, to 149 respondents recruited through Mechanical Turk. We found a weak but significant association between personal relative deprivation and celebrity attitudes. We successfully replicated earlier research showing that celebrity attitudes were positively correlated with material values and impulsivity. Personal relative deprivation also correlated positively with both material values and impulsivity. These findings suggest that the constructs of personal relative deprivation and celebrity attitudes appear to have much in common as both are associated with poor quality of life.
This study compared the quality of survey data collected from Mechanical Turk (MTurk) workers and college students. Three groups of participants completed the same survey. MTurk respondents completed the survey as paid workers using the Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing platform. Student Online respondents also completed the survey online after having been recruited in class. Finally, Student Paper-and-Pencil respondents completed the survey on paper in a classroom setting. Validity checks embedded in the survey were designed to gauge participants’ haste and carelessness in survey completion. MTurk respondents were significantly more likely to fail validity checks by contradicting their own answers or simply completing the survey too quickly. Student groups showed fewer careless mistakes and longer completion times. The MTurk sample tended to be older, more educated, and more ethnically diverse than student samples. Results suggest that researchers should pay special attention to the use of validity checks when recruiting MTurk samples.
Poker is a type of gambling that has specific features, including the need to regulate one’s emotion to be successful. The aim of the present study is to assess emotion regulation, anxiety and depression in a sample of regular poker players, and to compare the results of problem and non-problem gamblers. 416 regular online poker players completed online questionnaires including sociodemographic data, measures of problem gambling (CPGI), anxiety and depression (HAD scale), and emotion regulation (ERQ). The CPGI was used to divide participants into four groups according to the intensity of their gambling practice (non-problem, low risk, moderate risk and problem gamblers). Anxiety and depression were significantly higher among severe-problem gamblers than among the other groups. Both significantly predicted problem gambling. On the other hand, there was no difference between groups in emotion regulation (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression), which was linked neither to problem gambling nor to anxiety and depression (except for cognitive reappraisal, which was significantly correlated to anxiety). Our results underline the links between anxiety, depression and problem gambling among poker players. If emotion regulation is involved in problem gambling among poker players, as strongly suggested by data from the literature, the emotion regulation strategies we assessed (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) may not be those involved. Further studies are thus needed to investigate the involvement of other emotion regulation strategies.
In this article we examine data from a national U.S. adult survey of gambling to determine correlates of problem gambling and discuss them in light of theories of the etiology of problem gambling. These include theories that focus on personality traits, irrational beliefs, anti-social tendencies, neighborhood influences and availability of gambling. Results show that males, persons in the 31-40 age range, blacks, and the least educated had the highest average problem gambling symptoms. Adults who lived in disadvantaged neighborhoods also had the most problem gambling symptoms. Those who attended religious services most often had the fewest problem gambling symptoms, regardless of religious denomination. Respondents who reported that it was most convenient for them to gamble had the highest average problem gambling symptoms, compared to those for whom gambling was less convenient. Likewise, adults with the personality traits of impulsiveness and depression had more problem gambling symptoms than those less impulsive or depressed. Respondents who had friends who approve of gambling had more problem gambling symptoms than those whose friends did not approve of gambling. The results for the demographic variables as well as for impulsiveness and religious attendance are consistent with an anti-social/impulsivist pathway to problem gambling. The results for depression are consistent with an emotionally vulnerable pathway to problem gambling.
The primary aims of this study were to examine the prevalence of personality disorders in problem gamblers, to explore the relationship between personality disorders and problem gambling severity, and to explore the degree to which the psychological symptoms highlighted in the biosocial developmental model of borderline personality disorder (impulsivity, distress tolerance, substance use, PTSD symptoms, psychological distress and work/social adjustment) are associated with problem gambling. A secondary aim was to explore the strength of the relationships between these symptoms and problem gambling severity in problem gamblers with and without personality disorder pathology. Participants were 168 consecutively admitted problem gamblers seeking treatment from a specialist outpatient gambling service in Australia. The prevalence of personality disorders using the self-report version of the Iowa Personality Disorders Screen was 43.3 %. Cluster B personality disorders, but not Cluster A or C personality disorders, were associated with problem gambling severity. All psychological symptoms, except alcohol and drug use, were significantly higher among participants with personality disorder pathology compared to those without. Finally, psychological distress, and work and social adjustment were significantly associated with problem gambling severity for problem gamblers with personality disorder pathology, while impulsivity, psychological distress, and work and social adjustment were significantly associated with problem gambling severity for those without personality disorder pathology. High rates of comorbid personality disorders, particularly Cluster B disorders, necessitate routine screening in gambling treatment services. More complex psychological profiles may complicate treatment for problem gamblers with comorbid personality disorders. Future research should examine the applicability of the biosocial developmental model to problem gambling in community studies.
The Celebrity Attitude Scale was given to 600 college students from the Manila area in the Philippines. Mean scores were much higher than those reported in all studies done previously in the United States and England. Results were discussed in relation to the absorption-addiction model.
Measures of shyness, loneliness and attitudes toward a favorite celebrity were administered to 150 participants. We hypothesized that shyness and loneliness would be linked to the strength of one's "parasocial" relationship with celebrities, and to "highly visible" celebrities in particular. Of the 16 correlation coefficients we obtained, 15 were in the predicted direction, but none exceeded .24. Either shy and lonely people are not predisposed to seek strong parasocial bonds with celebrities or the hypothesized relationships are so weak that they account for very little variance.
College students served as mock jurors in a murder trial involving a movie star celebrity in one condition, a televangelist celebrity in another, and an office worker in a third. All three defendants were described as good-looking and were given first-rate legal representation. The trial transcript was manipulated in order to follow the advice of a famous lawyer who claims to have a formula for successfully defending celebrity clients (the Dubin defense). Results showed that the movie star was marginally more likely to be convicted than the other two, when their categories were combined. Those who scored high on the Celebrity Attitude Scale ("celebrity worshippers") were less likely to convict the movie star than those who scored low on the Scale. No support for the Dubin defense was found.
Insecure attachment to one's parents has been shown to contribute to poor adjustment as an adult. We investigated whether insecure attachment in childhood is associated with attachment to celebrities and a tendency to approve of celebrity stalking behaviors. We measured childhood attachment, celebrity worship, and the tendency to condone celebrity stalking in 299 college students. Those who reported insecure attachments as children were more likely to condone behaviors indicative of celebrity stalking. Moreover, those who formed strong attachments to their favorite celebrities (celebrity worshippers) were more likely to condone celebrity stalking than those who were not as strongly attracted to their favorite celebrities. Contrary to the hypothesis, insecure attachment was not significantly associated with attraction to celebrities. Results are discussed in relation to the "Absorption-addiction" model.
This study examined the structure of impulsivity within gambling disorder. A group of 51 men and 53 women with gambling disorder completed self-report and behavioral measures of impulsivity. Principal component analyses found two factors. The first was interpreted as measuring trait impulsivity. This factor correlated with problem gambling severity, presence of comorbid mental health and substance use disorders, history of brain injury, and was higher in Aboriginal participants. The second factor had high loadings on the self-reported sensation-seeking scales and the behavioural measures of response impulsivity. This factor correlated with overall gambling involvement but not with indicators of pathology. Higher scores were associated with younger age. These results are consistent with an evolving model of the etiology of disordered gambling that suggests that sensation-seeking is related to gambling involvement but that trait impulsivity and mental health struggles are associated with the development of gambling disorder.
The utility of Amazon's Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing service for psychology statistics and research methods instruction and for scholarly research applications is explored. Reliability and validity reports of data obtained via this service for several recently published studies are reviewed, and demographic and response characteristics of an international sample obtained by the authors via Mechanical Turk for a study of evolutionary functions of religious belief are presented and discussed. Abbreviated steps to implement Mechanical Turk for one's own sample construction and data collection also are provided. Psychology instructors are encouraged to consider Mechanical Turk as a data source for student activities in statistics and research methods classes.
One psychosocial factor that has been identified to motivate gambling is personal relative deprivation (PRD), which refers to resentment stemming from the belief that one is deprived of a desired and deserved outcome compared to some referent. Although several lines of evidence point to a positive association between PRD and the urge to gamble, the factors that might moderate this relation have yet to be investigated. Through a quantitative research synthesis, we sought to test (a) the overall relation between PRD and gambling urges among people reporting recent gambling experience, and (b) whether this relation is moderated by problem gambling severity. Meta-analysis revealed that, overall, higher self-reported PRD was associated with stronger urges to gamble (r = .26). A meta-regression revealed that, across studies, the strength of this relation depended on problem gambling severity, such that the relation between PRD and gambling urges was stronger among samples higher in average problem gambling severity. This pattern was corroborated by an analysis of the aggregated individual participant data (N = 857), such that PRD predicted gambling urges only among participants higher in problem gambling severity. The potential practical implications and limitations of these results are discussed.