Celebrity Worship Among University Students in Malaysia

Abstract

The present study examined conceptual issues surrounding celebrity worship in a Malay-speaking population. In total, 512 Malay and 269 Chinese participants from Malaysia indicated who their favorite celebrity was and completed the Celebrity Attitude Scale (CAS) as well as a range of demographic items. Results showed that the majority of Malay and Chinese participants selected pop stars and movie stars as their favourite celebrities, mirroring findings in Western settings. In addition, exploratory factor analysis revealed a three-factor solution of the CAS that was consistent with previous studies conducted in the West. Structural equation modeling further revealed that participant’s age was negatively associated with celebrity worship and that self-rated attractiveness was positively associated with celebrity worship. Overall, the present results suggest that celebrity worship in Malaysia may be driven by market and media forces, and future research may well be guided by use of the CAS.

Adolescents’ Views on Celebrity Worship: A Qualitative Study

“…While some participants expressed that celebrity products (e.g., feel impressed with the celebrities' music or performance) and personal characteristics of the celebrity (e.g., feel appreciation from the celebrities or the celebrities exhibit positive attitudes) were the contributing factors to keep their loyalty towards a celebrity, others encountered peer influence when they were first attracted to a celebrity. This concurs with the absorption-addiction model which suggests that the first level of celebrity worship is entertainment-social whereby people would be attracted to the celebrity because of these 2 factors (Hyman & Sierra, 2007, Swami et al, 2010. Also, at this level, participants devoted much time and energy to their celebrities because of the physiological characteristics of the celebrity like good looks and good voices.…”

“…As defined by Maltby et al (2002), a score at or above the scale midpoints on the three subscales of the CAS is considered as a celebrity worshiper. This scale has been validated in different countries such as the United States, United Kingdom and Malaysia (Maltby et al, 2002;McCutcheon, et al, 2002;Swami et al, 2010).…”

The association of celebrity worship with problematic Internet use, maladaptive daydreaming, and desire for fame

“…Similar to previous studies (Griffith et al., 2013; Sheridan et al., 2007; Swami et al., 2011), the most frequently chosen categories for participants’ favorite celebrity were singers or musicians and actors/actresses.…”

“…(2003) (i.e., 27% scoring high on the two problematic dimensions). One possible explanation could be that the proportion of male participants was very high in the present sample, and some studies reported that females are more likely to become fascinated with celebrities than males (Reyes et al., 2016; Swami et al., 2011). However, due to the lack of cutoff points that are based on empirical findings, these prevalences should be interpreted with caution.…”

“…With regard to demographic characteristics, women had a greater tendency of becoming absorbed in the personal lives of their favorite celebrity than men in this study. Most studies found no gender differences in celebrity worship (e.g., Maltby et al., 2003, 2004; McCutcheon, Scott, Aruguete, & Parker, 2006), while some studies reported women scoring higher on the Entertainment-Social dimension of celebrity worship than men among Filipinos (Reyes et al., 2016; Vega et al., 2013) and in a Malay-speaking sample (Swami et al., 2011). One possible explanation for women scoring higher than men in these studies including this study could be cultural differences.…”