A Clinical Interpretation of Attitudes and Behaviors Associated With Celebrity Worship

Abstract

The phenomenon of celebrity worship is currently conceptualized as an abnormal type of parasocial relationship, driven by absorption and addictive elements and which potentially has significant clinical sequelae. The authors hypothesize that the three increasingly extreme sets of attitudes and behaviors associated with celebrity worship also partly reflect the three domains of personality discussed in Eysenckian theory. Specifically, celebrity worship for entertainment-social reasons may reflect extraversion personality traits; intense-personal attitudes and behaviors toward celebrities may reflect neuroticism traits; and celebrity worship of a borderline-pathological nature may reflect psychoticism traits. To test this idea, the authors administered the Celebrity Attitude Scale and the Abbreviated Form of the Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire to large convenience samples of students (N = 317) and community (N = 290) respondents. Results indicate that celebrity worship is not an uncommon phenomenon. Further, correlational analyses supported predictions and suggest that Eysenckian domains of personality may promote or hinder a person's progression along the continuum of behaviors associated with celebrity worship.

Celebrity worship, addiction and criminality

“…All loadings over 0.5 are given in bold. (Maltby et al, 2002(Maltby et al, , 2003. The current work however, did not identify a Borderline-Pathological component.…”

“…One obvious source of this disparity is sampling differences. However, McCutcheon et al's (2002) original findings were based on responses from participants of ''various educational backgrounds'' in the USA (M age 32.7), and Maltby et al (2003) replicated the three subscales of the CAS (Intense ÁPersonal, Entertainment ÁSocial and BorderlinePathological) in two UK groups of 317 undergraduates (M age 20.4) and 290 community groups (M age 34.3) convenience samples, as did Ashe and McCutcheon (2001) in a sample of 150 inhabitants of Florida, USA (M age 24.6). The majority of the work that has measured celebrity worship via the CAS has employed convenience samples.…”

“…Maltby, Houran, and McCutcheon (2003), again employing the CAS as a measure of celebrity worship, concluded that the three ''stages'' of celebrity worship are related to Eysenck's three fundamental dimensions of personality (extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism), and that these dimensions of personality may aid or impede an individual's progression along the celebrity worship continuum. More specifically, positive relationships were found between celebrity worship for Entertainment ÁSocial reasons and extraversion, celebrity worship for Intense ÁPersonal reasons and neuroticism, and finally celebrity worship fuelled by pathological thoughts and behaviours and psychoticism.…”

The interpersonal beginnings of fandom: The relation between attachment style, trust, and the admiration of celebrities

“…ii The Self-classified Attachment Style developed by Hazan and Shaver (1987) is a forced-choice description of the avoidant, anxiousambivalent, and secure attachment styles. Participants are requested to circle the one attachment style that best describes them.…”

An investigation of demographic correlates of the Celebrity Attitude Scale

“…A few studies show that older participants tend to score slightly lower on the CAS (e.g. Maltby, Houran, & McCutcheon, 2003). Our ability to generalize to older, non-student populations is limited.…”