Extreme celebrity worship, fantasy proneness and dissociation: Developing the measurement and understanding of celebrity worship within a clinical personality context

Maltby, John; Day, Liza; McCutcheon, Lynn E.; Houran, James; Ashe, Diane D.

doi:10.1016/j.paid.2005.07.004

Cited by 97 publications

(116 citation statements)

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“…Only fans in the Dysfunctional category exhibited behavior that "violated social norms" (2011: 162) including stalking behavior. The results revealed that stalking and other extreme behaviors were only exhibited by a minute percentage of the fans in the study, a finding that mirrors the percentage of "borderline pathological fans" (3%) in the celebrity worship studies (Maltby et al 2006;Stever 2011a).…”

Section: Literaturesupporting

confidence: 52%

“…Survey data of over 600 questionnaires; both the Celebrity Appeal Questionnaire (Stever 2008) and the Celebrity Attitude Scale (Maltby et al 2006) were given. In addition, the researcher attended charity drives, television tapings, and other fan related events.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some literature has focused on fans of this type who show pathological signs of celebrity worship, stalking and other such behaviors (Maltby et al 2006;McCutcheon et al 2003;McCutcheon et al 2016). The fan as "stalker" is an almost iconic symbol in media (Duffett 2013), fed by popular films such as Play Misty for Me as well as real-life incidents like the murder of John Lennon by Mark David Chapman or the more recent murder of The Voice star, Christina Grimmie, by Kevin Loibl.…”

Section: Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

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Meeting Josh Groban (Again): Fan/Celebrity Contact as Ordinary Behavior

Stever

2016

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In a participant-observer ethnographic study, the researcher offers evidence from 10 years of observation of the Josh Groban fandom as an example of fans becoming friendly acquaintances of celebrities. Contrary to the way much of the psychological literature depicts fans, as celebrity worshippers or stalkers, the largest percentage of the fans observed in this study showed normal social engagement with others outside of their fan activity, and a friendly acquaintanceship with Groban that is similar to other kinds of relationships happening outside of the context of mediated relationships. Fans who pursued these relationships did so within a social context and network of other fans in most cases. Connection through music, relief from various kinds of life stressors, or the desire to participate in charity efforts are offered as some of the explanations for what motivates the fan to seek out this kind of relationship with an attractive media persona.

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Section: Literaturesupporting

confidence: 52%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

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Meeting Josh Groban (Again): Fan/Celebrity Contact as Ordinary Behavior

Stever

2016

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“…A tendency toward cognitive escape into the entertainment world of celebrities might me manifested as a preference for fantasy. Research has shown that high CAS scorers also tend to be fantasy prone (Maltby, Day, McCutcheon, Houran, & Ashe, 2006). If African-Americans identify more strongly with their favorite celebrities because it provides a temporary mental escape from reality, we might expect fantasy proneness to manifest itself in other ways beside a strong attachment to a celebrity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An investigation of demographic correlates of the Celebrity Attitude Scale

et al. 2016

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The Celebrity Attitude Scale (CAS) has been widely used in the last 15 years, but little is known about how ethnicity and socioeconomic status relate to scores on this scale. In the first of two studies, we showed that a sample of African-American college students had more favorable attitudes toward their favorite celebrities than a sample of White college students. However, there was no control for the possibility that the two samples were unequal with respect to socioeconomic status. The second study controlled for that possibility, and added samples of Hispanic and Asian college students. Results showed that African-American participants again had more favorable attitudes toward their favorite celebrities than Whites did, with Hispanic and Asian-American participants falling in between the two extremes. Socioeconomic status was unrelated to CAS scores. African-Americans tended to select African-American celebrities as their favorites, and Whites tended to choose Whites, with Hispanic and Asian-Americans showing no ethnic preferences. Strength of identification with one’s ethnic group was unrelated to ethnic concordance in choosing a favorite celebrity, but strength of identification with one’s ethnic group decreased as favorable attitudes toward one’s favorite celebrity increased. We discussed why African-American participants might report more attachment to their favorite celebrities than White participants.

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“…Perhaps high scorers on LAS-D are attracted to celebrities because they can fantasize that their favorite celebrities are fulfilling the needs that they feel are being neglected by their intimate partners. Indeed, one study found a significant link between fantasy proneness and CAS Intense Personal scores, and between both fantasy proneness and dissociation, and scores on CAS Borderline Pathological (Maltby, Day, McCutcheon, Houran, & Ashe, 2006).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intimate relationships and attitudes toward celebrities

et al. 2016

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Previous research indicates that persons who self-report a high level of preoccupation with celebrities tend to have lower levels of well-being. We administered the "Romantic Partner Conflict Scale", the "Love Attitudes Scale", the soulmate subscale from the "Relationship Theories Questionnaire", and the anxiety subscale from the "Experiences in Close Relationships Scale" to 330 students from four universities to see how well scores on these measures would predict scores on each of the three subscales from the "Celebrity Attitude Scale" (CAS). We predicted that persons whose scores on these measures of intimate relationships indicated a troubled, anxious, or poor quality relationship would have higher scores on the CAS, especially on its two problematic subscales. In three multiple regressions, specific measures of behavior during conflict with a romantic partner and certain love styles significantly predicted scores on all three of the CAS subscales. We discuss the implications of being a celebrity worshiper on one's relationship with an intimate partner.

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Extreme celebrity worship, fantasy proneness and dissociation: Developing the measurement and understanding of celebrity worship within a clinical personality context

Cited by 97 publications

References 10 publications

Meeting Josh Groban (Again): Fan/Celebrity Contact as Ordinary Behavior

Meeting Josh Groban (Again): Fan/Celebrity Contact as Ordinary Behavior

An investigation of demographic correlates of the Celebrity Attitude Scale

Intimate relationships and attitudes toward celebrities

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