Psychology of celebrity Flashcards
giles distinction between famous and celebrity
famous- deserving of recognition because of significant personal achievement
celebrity- well know (many celebs are known for nothing in particular other than being known)
description of social/psycholoigcal explanation of celebrity attraction: parasocial relationships
we encounter celebs through film/tv and learn a lot about them
repeated encounters give a strong sense of familiairty: so the media enables us to feel like we have relationships with them which are like real life ones
the difference is in a real relationship- people are emotionally involved with each other but in a parasocial relationship it is onesided- one person knows a lot about the other and may feel affection towards them and the other is unaware of the other person’s existence
illusion of face to face relationship
may form due to TRANSPORTATION which is getting immersed in a story line, bringing strong emotions
Giles’s 3 types of media figures who we can form para-social relationships with
real people: e.g tv presenters (could potentially have a real relationship with
fictional human character: e.g from a drama or soap opera, played by an actor- potential real relationship with actor
fictional non-human character: e.g. cartoon characters which are not visually represented by a human- no potential real relationship
evaluation of para-social relationships meyrowitz
meyrowitz described extreme reactions to the deaths of celebritiies’ such as evils presley and john lennon. the end of a real relationship can result in depression, or a reason for seeking councelling. Since the ending of parasitical relationships are similar to this, there is support for the explanation
evaluation of parasocial relationships eyal and cohen
investigated whether the same effects as merowitz found could be applied to fictional characters:
following the airing of the last episode of friends, 279 students completed questionnaires assessing the strength of their parasitical relationship e.g ‘i would like to meet my favourite character’ and the strength of their feeling about the parasitical breakup e.g ‘ now my fav friends character is offline i feel more lonely’.
it was found that the amount of breakup distress predicted the intensity of the parasitical relationship
support for explanation because the more intense a real relationship is the greater the dishes of breakup and the same was found for para-social relationships
however a findings which contradicts the explanation is that duration of parasocial rel did not predict breakup distress compared to real relationships where the longer they last the more painful the loss.
the general issue with the explanation is that it does not explain why some people are more attracted to parodical relationships than others.
quick summary of eval of parasocial relationships
prediction: loss of parasitical relationship will result in the same response as a real relationship (parasocial bereavement)
both studies have found that para-social bereavement does happen after the loss of a celebrity= support for theory.
E&C correlation between intensity and distress and parasitical relationships.
description of attachment theory
ainsworth identified 3 main types of attachment:
type A: insecure avoidant (fearful and withdrawing)
type B: secure (strong and positive)
type C: insecure resistant (both seeking and resisting contact)
these attachments form in infancy and remain the same over a lifetime due to the internal working model i.e an expectation of relationships which stays with you for life.
theory predicts that attachment type should in reflected in real and para-social relationships.
type C’s are likely to be the most attracted to celebrity because they seek attention but feel negatively about themselves. intense attraction to celebrity allows them to express their feelings without fear of rejection
type B are less likely because they have less fear of rejection
type A are the least likely because their unwillingness to form parochial relationships reflects their hesistancy to form real life ones.
evaluation of attachment theory
the main strength of attachment theory (that para-social relationships ((celebrities are attraction because media creates an illusion of a real relationship)) alone can’t do) is explain why some people are attracted to celebs in this way and others aren’t.
Cole and Leets supports attachment theory
american students completed a parasoial interaction likert scale which included 20 items e.g ‘i think of my fav tv personality like an old friend’ or ‘i miss seeing this person when their programme isn’t on’
but findinds are not restricted to american culture- cohen later investigated the same effects with isreli puts and still found type C (resistant) to be the most likely to form parasocial rels.
a 15 item likert scale to assess attachment type e.g ‘i find it relatively easy to get close to others’ (type B)/ ‘i am nervous when someone gets too close’ (type A)/ ‘sometime people are scared away by my wanting to be close to them’ (type c)
Havan and Shaver also found this using love questionnaires found people’s attachment type and their experience in relationships.
evolutionary explanations of celebrity attraction brief description of evol
natural selection: characteristics best suited to improving survival are more likely to spread through a species because survival means chance of reproducing. Genes that not do aid survival or are maladaptive soon die out of the gene pool, surviving genes live on so modern behaviour must have been adaptive to the environment of evolutionary adaptiveness.
gossip theory
gossip is exchanging information about someone who is not present.
our ancestors in the EEA lived in more isolated and smaller social groups and knowing about social groups e.g knowing potential mates/ who to avoid or be frightened of and understanding the hierarchy of status gave reproductive and survival advantage.
so those who were good at gossiping survived and reproduced giving rise to genetic hardwiring for gossip nowadays.
however evolution did not prepare us t o distinguish between people that have actual effects on our lives and images in the media. SO famililarity with celebs from the media trips our gossip module. wealthy well known successful people remind us of these people our ancestors gossiped about.
Dunbar (gossip theory)
suggests that another function of gossiping in primates is to act like grooming, grooming has health benefits and ties people together in social groups.
Evaluation of gossip theory
the theory explains the need to identify with celebs and parasocial relationships
however it does not explain the individual differences in celebrity attraction, so it requires us to consider people’s experiences as well (because not everyone involved in celeb attraction)
as a theory it lacks falsifiability- if someone dislikes celebrities it doesn’t disprove the theory for other people.
perhaps for these reasons attachment theory is a better explanation.
(could in a Q after this say Holt and Lewis- universal but maybe not specific to celebs)
De backer - evaluation of gossip theory
supports the theory: 838 ppts surveys and in-depth interviews with 103 of them found that older people were interested in celebrity gossip because it helped them form social networks- celebrities act as mutual friends (living in scatted societies there’s not always lots to talk about)
seeing celebs as sources of social groups is evidence of our shared needed to do so and suggests it is evolved.
found that younger ppts showed interest in celebrity gossip even if the celeb was a lot older than them and even if they didn’t know them!
showed greatest interest in international celebs bc they’re prestigious it would have paid to know those with the highest status in the EEA.
Holt and Lewis- evaluation of gossip theory
argue gossip is universal- everywhere people love talking about others.
this universality suggest that the tendency to to gossip is hardwired rather than dependent on culture.
Ornamental mind theory description
human beings possess a love of novelty (neophilia)
before TV/computers, ancestors had to amuse each other, neophilia would lead to more creative displays from potential mates
we were able to fantasise and be creative
music art and humour are highly valued by humans, particularly during mate choice.
Miller suggests that sexual selection might favour minds prone to inventing imaginative fantasies- musicians, artists, actors display these talents and we are drawn to them.
Fisher suggest females will choose males to mate with based on the characteristics they find most attractive
this male trait and preference of the female will be passes on to the nest generation
both become fixed in the gene pool
male trait may have no survival advantage but it does have value in sexual selection.
evaluation of ornamental mind thoery
can’t explain why some people are attracted to celebrities with no particular talent
and doesn’t explain why females are attracted to females to male attracted to other males.
Shiraishi et al- evaluation of ornamental mind
indirect support for the theory
discovered an emzyme variant of MAOA correlated with novelty seeking tendencies
genetic differences mean people produce variations of this gene
and one variant correlated significantly with novelty seeking tendencies
so there could be a genetic origin for neophilia/attraction to creative people.
this is only correlational however.
Duck evaluation of ornamental mind
Duck supported the importance of neophilia
who found that boredom is often cited as the main reason for ending romantic relationships
it follows from miller idea that creative minds are more successful t attracted mates
supported by Nettle and Cleg who found that serious artists and poets had significantly more sexual partners over their lifetime compared to hobbyists
((but it is due to the popular culture of romanticism from film and cinema, who we’ve been influenced by??))
holt and lewis pointed out that over 2/3s of readerships of celebrity gossip mags is female.
overall the importance of neophilia in mate selection, the fact that women are the ‘choosier sex’ and the sex most interested in celebrities.
however a limitation of ornamental theory is that some people are attracted to celebrities with no talent.
social psychology explanations compared to evolutionary ones
social psychological explanations have more weight since they can explain more convincingly why some people are attracted to celebrity whereas the evolutionary explanations can be considered more speculative and less evidence based.
research into intense fandom: the celebrity attitude scale (CAS)
developed my mccutcheon 3 different types of attraction: entertainment social intense personal borderline pathological
maltby et al classified 5% as IP and 2% as BP- where celebrity attraction ends and celebrity worship begins is somewhere between IP and BP dimensions on the CAS scale
entertainment social
entertainment social: fans become attracted to celebrity because of their perceived ability to entertain and become a source of social interaction and gossip (social forces)
