Celebrity Worship: Critiquing a Construct

Abstract

McCutcheon, Lange, & Houran (2002) proposed the Celebrity Attitude Scale (CAS) to identify celebrity worshipers, useful for identifying individuals who are overly absorbed or addicted to their interest in a celebrity. Problematic is the absence of a conceptual definition for celebrity worshiper and how this term relates to use of the term fan. Currently, these terms are most often used as if they were synonyms (Haspel, 2006; Maltby, Day, McCutcheon, Gillett et al., 2004; McCutcheon, Lange, & Houran, 2002). Sampled groups of serious fans contained many individuals who met none of the criteria for celebrity worship, as identified by the CAS. The use of celebrity worshiper as a synonym for fan appears to be conceptually flawed.

The Perfect Little Bump: Does the Media Portrayal of Pregnant Celebrities Influence Prenatal Attachment?

“…Celebrity attraction is the extent to which a person relies on celebrities for image cues, and serves as a potential source of vicarious learning and behavior adoption (Longhurst, ). Celebrity attraction may interfere with the setting of realistic goals, and satisfaction with self, leading to concerns regarding the role celebrities play in the lives and behaviors of their admirers, particularly if these admirers strive to achieve unrealistic goals to the detriment of their own health and well‐being (Ashe & McCutcheon, ; Maltby, Giles, Barber, & McCutcheon, ; Stever, ).…”

“…While this research has established the passage through pregnant celebrity attraction to pregnancy body image dissatisfaction and ultimately prenatal attachment, it has not focused on clarifying exactly the preexisting consumer characteristics or contexts that increase pregnant celebrity attraction and reaction. .Stever () notes that more conceptual work is needed to differentiate between a celebrity fan and a celebrity worshipper, or those who are overly absorbed or addicted to their interest in a celebrity. Identification and continued research focused on those with the highest level of celebrity attraction, or who meet the criteria of a celebrity worshiper as defined by Stever () within a pregnancy context would offer much, particularly where more antecedent variables are included.…”

A Study on the Effects of Sales Promotion on Consumer Involvement and Purchase Intention in Tourism Industry

“…Lin et al (2011) considered Purchase Intention as the psychological state of a consumer planning to consume certain brand in a certain period of time as well as the probability and possibility of a consumer taking or presenting real purchase reaction (Ochi et al 2010). Moreover, Stever (2011) pointed out the measurement of Purchase Intention depending on consumer intention to purchasing certain products that the higher Purchase Intention revealed the higher purchase probability. In other words, Purchase Intention was the possibility of a consumer purchasing certain products that the higher Purchase Intention presented the larger purchase probability (Yim et al 2012).…”

Regulatory motivations in celebrity interest: Self-suppression and self-expansion.

“…Stever, 2011). For example, the most used context is the absorption-addiction hypothesis ) that describes an increased severity in celebrity interest from entertainment-social, through intense-personal, to borderline pathological, which at its highest level is thought to result in a compromised identity structure and a greater identification with a celebrity.…”