University of the Philippines Diliman

Department of Psychology
2nd Semester AY 2013 - 2014

Celebrity Worship: Is it a Negative Thing?

A Literature Review submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
Psychology 180: Social Psychology
By
Potian, Erika Cher P.
2010-20227
To
Prof. Eric Julian Manalastas

April 2, 2014
With the advent of the Internet and more studies on pop culture, celebrity worship
became a topic of interest in different fields of knowledge, such as Psychology. According to
Research into Intense Fandom, Including Celebrity Worship and Celebrity Stalking (2012),
celebrity worship is a preoccupation with a celebrity that affects the worshippers life and could
be described as obsessional.
Given this definition, it is intuitive for celebrity worship to be deemed as something
negative. Celebrity worshippers have their own share of accusations of being too attached, too
obsessed, and too invested get thrown around readily, and all too often such affect is criticized
for being too girly or like a teen (Busse, 2013). Previous studies have suggested and popular
opinion is that members of fan communities display fanatical or pathological worship of their
celebrity or brand hero (Maltby, Houran, Ashe, & McCutcheon, 2001). Also, aside from the
advocacy of capitalism, ignorance of social issues and propagation of democracy diminishing
(Altman, 2005), it is often perceived that people who engage in celebrity worship commit
stalking. After all, according to a study by Sheridan, North, Maltby, & Gillett (2007), addiction

and criminality are significantly associated with celebrity worship. More importantly, there exists
a term called Celebrity Worship Syndromealthough it still has not made its way to the DSM-5.
However, it is important to note that celebrity worship has been conceptualized as having
pathological and non-pathological forms (McCutcheon, Lange, & Houran, 2002). Research
showed that only the pathological forms are generally harmful (Giles & Maltby, 2006). This is
based on the framework developed with the Celebrity Worship Scale (CWS) by Maltby and
colleagues (2002) which was revised by McCutcheon, Lange, and Hourans (2002) to become
the 23-item Celebrity Attitude Scale (CAS). This scale is said to have triggered a modest amount
of research aimed at determining the attitudes, traits and behaviors of those who "worshipped" at
least one celebrity (Maltby, McCutcheon & Lowinger, 2011).
This literature review aims to answer the question of whether celebrity worship is
negative or not by looking at studies published about the topic during the past decade up to
present. According to Grohol (2008), the picture we have on whether celebrity worship is good
or bad is not black and whiteit is instead, mixed.
With the assumption that celebrity worship is pathological, it can be said that there are
quite a lot of findings that support the view that the phenomenon has many negative effects.
However, it must be taken into account that research in this field is not yet very extensive, and
many studies are done by the same people. Nevertheless, one of the negative effects that were
found correlated with celebrity worship is a lower cognitive ability. In 2003, a study by
McCutcheon and colleagues (as cited in Giles & Maltby, 2006) examined the relationship
between celebrity worship and six cognitive measures comprising creativity (verbal), crystallized
intelligence, critical thinking, spatial ability, and need for cognition. High scores on celebrity
worship (using the CAS) consistently showed negative correlations with these measures of
cognitive ability. The only exception to this trend was a small but significant contribution of
scores on creativity in predicting scores on the borderline pathological subscale In addition, two
other studies have looked at celebrity worship and cognitive flexibility, which refers to a persons
awareness that in any given situation there are options and alternatives available, willingness to
be flexible and adapt to the situation, and self-efficacy in being flexible. Martin, Cayanus,
McCutcheon, & Maltby (2003) and Maltby, Day, McCutcheon, Martin, & Cayanus (2004)
examined the relationship between celebrity worship and cognitive flexibility among USA and

UK samples, respectively. Both studies found negative associations between intense-personal

celebrity worship and cognitive flexibility, suggesting individuals who engage in celebrity
worship for intensepersonal reasons are unable to consider options or to implement alternatives
to problems (Giles & Maltby, 2006).
Aside from cognitive ability, McCutcheon et al. (2002) speculated that an introverted
nature and lack of meaningful relationships exist among celebrity worshippers. They further
stated that this lead to a heightened sense of reality, which in turn is said to feed erroneous
beliefs that the celebrity worshipper and the focus of his or her attention have a special
connection. Thus, the worshipper may then engage in more and more extreme behaviors in order
to increase his or her knowledge of and feelings of proximity to the favored celebrity, which is
exemplified by stalking. The most extreme form of celebrity worship, as proposed by
McCutcheon and colleagues encompasses obsessive-compulsive and even delusional aspects.
This form, called the Borderline-Pathological (as opposed to lighter forms Entertainment-Social
and Intense-Personal derived from the CAS) resulted to a compromised identity structure and a
greater identification with a celebrity in an attempt to establish a self image. It is supported by
Cheung & Yues (2003) findings that teenagers who worship idols from TV demonstrate the
lowest levels of identity achievement. Moreover, both males and females who scored high on the
CAS Intense-personal subscale (IP) also tended toward Neuroticism, as measured by the NEO
PI-R (Maltby & Day, 2011).
Adolescents are more likely to copy actions of celebrities like getting tattooed, smoking,
using drugs and alcohol, or committing disordered eating (Harrison, n.d, as cited in Atman,
2005). Furthermore, findings suggest that in female adolescents, there is an interaction between
Intense-personal celebrity worship and body image between the ages of 14 and 16 years, and
some tentative evidence has been found to suggest that this relationship disappears at the onset of
adulthood, 17 to 20 years (Maltby, Giles, Barber & McCutcheon, 2005). Moreover, Maltby et al.
(2005) stated that parasocial relationships with celebrities perceived as having a good body shape
may lead to a poor body image in female adolescents Maltby and Days (2011) study about the
relationship of celebrity worship and elective cosmetic surgery six years later also supported
these findings.

With all these, why does celebrity worship persist? Why do people stick their noses in
the business of celebrities who will probably never know them in real life? Altman (2005) stated
that large segments of society have always lived vicariously through celebrities. The basis of the
celebrity worship concept is the notion of parasocial relationships, which was first identified by
Horton and Wohl (1956) in relationship to television audiences perceived one-way relationships
with television presenters (De Backer, 2012). The relation between stars and their audiences is
typically characterized by a lack of feedback in interactions (De Backer, 2012). Because of the
one-way nature of information and emotion in these interactions, they are termed parasocial. It is
based on this unreciprocated relationship researchers developed the absorption-addiction model
of celebrity worship (McCutcheon et al., 2002). According to this model, the more absorbed an
individual became with their parasocial relationship with a celebrity, the more addictive the
relationship became, with the associated pathology and behaviorrs related to addiction.
Consistent with this model, Giles and Maltbys (2006) study on brand community provides a
context to enact celebrity worship and also the social reinforcement to support the addictive
components of celebrity worship.
Maltby et al. (2001) argued that the positive relationship between celebrity worship and
poorer psychological well-being results from failed attempts to escape, cope, or enhance one's
daily life. However, De Backers (2012) more recent research suggests that parasocial
relationships should be seen as an extension of consumers social lives, rather than compensation
for a lack thereof. Studies investigating how parasocial relationships function have shown that
the first case (extension) is more likely (Cohen, 2004). Also, although they do not replace real
interactions, parasocial relationships do help to boost self-esteem among consumers with low
self-esteem (Derrick, Gabriel, & Trippin, 2008). A further study by Derrick, Gabriel, &
Hugenberg (2009) showed that favorite TV programs decrease feelings of loneliness and low
mood among average individuals (as cited in De Backer, 2012). In addition, according to
Greenwood & Long (2011), the level of intimacy established with same-sex friends in real life
correlates with the level of intimacy experienced with parasocial friends, which means that the
closer a persons real-life relationships are, the closer their parasocial relationships will be (as
cited in DeBacker, 2012).

By now, it is established that there are psychological benefits gained from worshipping
celebrities. Celebrity worship gives social support, and researchers have noted that one form of
social support is the realization that you are needed and matter to others (Baym, 2012). Among
the benefits of receiving social support are better psychological adjustment, higher perceptions of
self-efficacy, better coping, improved task performance, better disease resistance and recovery,
and lowered risk of mortality (Burleson & Macgeorge, 2002, as cited in Baym, 2012). According
to Maltby et al. (2001), sharing information and experiences with friends might promote social
relationships and serve as a buffer against everyday stressors. Researchers also found out that
gossiping children had a stronger network of close friends than their peers who were less
interested in celebrities (Altman, 2005). Lastly, research on motivated cognition (which is
present in celebrity worship) can help explain thought-provoking entertainment experiences, and
the potential of such experiences to stimulate self-reflection and personal growth (Bartsch &
Oliver, 2011).
In conclusion, celebrity worship has both positive and negative effects. Celebrity worship
is a bad thing only if it is intense enough to violate societal norms, if it inflicts harm on other
people and if it afflicts the worshipper physically or psychologically. Also, careful note must
be made to differentiate pathological and non-pathological celebrity worship, which spells a
great difference whether or not celebrity worship will go awry. More studies, whether empirical
or based on ethnography, should be done in order to further understand this complex
phenomenon.
References
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Cheung, C. K., & Yue, X. D. (2003). Identity achievement and idol worship among teenagers in
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