FANatics: Systematic literature review of factors associated with celebrity worship, and suggested directions for future research

Abstract

A 'culture of celebrity' began to emerge in the twentieth century, profoundly impacting the social world. Recent years have seen the publication of an increasing wealth of literature focusing on people who are enthralled with celebritiesoften to the point of obsessiontermed 'celebrity worshippers'. The current paper systematically reviews this literature to gain a comprehensive understanding of the various factors associated with celebrity worship and to identify gaps in the literature. Papers were identified through a systematic literature search and 62 were deemed relevant for inclusion in the review. These provided evidence that celebrity worship may be related to demographic factors (e.g. age); personality factors (e.g. dimensions of the psychoticismextraversion-neuroticism model, materialism); religiosity; behavioural and cognitive-behavioural factors (e.g. fantasy proneness, obsessive behaviours); feelings about the self or the world (e.g. self-esteem); cognitive factors (e.g. cognitive flexibility, critical thinking); relationships with others (e.g. attachment style, romantic relationship style); attitudes towards the body, eating, and cosmetic surgery; and psychological wellbeing (e.g. depression, anxiety). The results are used to help researchers understand the individual and psychosocial factors associated with celebrity worship, and directions for future research in this area are identified.

A lethal imitation game? Exploring links among psychoactive substance use, self-harming behaviors and celebrity worship

“…Consistent with previous findings, celebrity worship was associated with younger age for both genders (see Brooks, 2018 for a review). Furthermore, the present results demonstrating similar levels of celebrity worship across gender aligns with those studies reporting no gender difference in celebrity admiration (e.g., Ashe et al, 2005 , Maltby and Day, 2011 , McCutcheon et al, 2006 ).…”

“…In the present study a higher percentage of participants scored at or above the midpoint on this first level than scored at or above the midpoint of the other two, more problematic levels. The finding that intentional self-injury and suicide attempts for both genders, while drunkenness and psychoactive substance use for males are associated with higher celebrity worship levels is also consistent with the pattern of negative attitudes and behaviors linked to high celebrity worship levels in previous studies (see Brooks, 2018 , for a review). However, these associations are relatively weak, a fact that the Absorption-Addiction Model explains by pointing out that most celebrity worshipers experience no severe mental health difficulties and are attracted to their favorite celebrity because they find that celebrity entertaining and a topic for conversation/socialization with their friends.…”

“…This might be due at least partly to the fact that participants of this study were quite a bit older than the college-age students that have served as participants in many previous studies (e.g., Maltby et al, 2003 , McCutcheon et al, 2006 , McCutcheon et al, 2016 ). Celebrity worship scores have been shown to decline slightly with age ( Brooks, 2018 ).…”

Individual Differences in the Association Between Celebrity Worship and Subjective Well-Being: The Moderating Role of Gender and Age

“…The influential role of celebrities on mass media consumers' attitudes and behavior has generated considerable research in the past decades (Fraser and Brown, 2002;Dix et al, 2010;Nisbett and DeWalt, 2016). A growing body of research has focused on the psychological characteristics of fans with an excessive admiration toward a celebrity (i.e., "celebrity worshippers") (McCutcheon et al, 2004;Brooks, 2018). Besides major demographic characteristics, several studies have investigated the association between celebrity worship and well-being (see Sansone and Sansone, 2014 for a review).…”

Investigating the Association Between Celebrity Worship and Heteronormative Attitudes Among Heterosexual and LGB+ Individuals

“…Individual differences in celebrity admiration have been of considerable research interest in the past two decades (Brooks 2018). These studies have mainly focused on the psychological harms (Sansone and Sansone 2014), cognitive deficits (McCutcheon et al 2012) and social difficulties related to excessive celebrity worship (Houran et al 2005).…”