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Lecture notes: PS1810: Celebrity Worship
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Semester 1 PS1810 notes. Written in 2020/21
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PS1810 – WEEK 8 – Celebrity worshipCelebrity in psychology
Media psychology: relatively new field (Giles, 2010) but already struggling with online
challenges
Celebrity studies: also new – journal in 2010 – but ‘multidisciplinary’. So far, rather limited
role of psychology
Communication research
Mostly outside UK, many social psychologists in field of communication
Focus on audiences more generally, and here too challenged by digital culture
Celebrity worship in psychology
Some connection between religion and fandom (Giles, 2000)
McCutcheon et al. 2002: first empirical research
‘celebrity worship scale’ (CWS) to measure levels of worship
Psychometric scale
‘Likert-type’ scale
High score: high level of celebrity worship
Initial findings
33 items given to 249 participants (10 to 68 yrs)
Music and sport celebrities received highest ratings
Men scored higher than women
Authors proposed an ‘absorption-addiction model’ to explain findings
High interest (absorption) leads to obsession and ‘over-identification’ with celebrity
May be triggered by failure of own relationships
Subsequent research with CWS
John Maltby and colleagues found that CWS broke down into 3 subscales
Entertainment-social
Intense-personal
Borderline-pathological
Correlations with psychological variables
Maltby et al. (2004)
- I-P subscale associated with poorer mental health
Maltby et al. (2006)
- I-P and B-P scales correlated with OCD behaviours
Giles & Maltby (2004): teenagers, total CWS with:
- High emotional autonomy
- High peer attachment
- Low parental attachment
- Celebrities as ‘pseudo-friends’ during transition?
Recent research
Zisla et al. (2019):
- Path analysis
Relationship between CWS and pathology explained by:
- Desire for fame
- ‘maladaptive daydreaming’
A statistical quirk?
Huh (2012) found that CWS scores were positively correlated with 2D:4D digit ratio in
females (not males)
Suggested this reflected on role of testosterone
But digit ratio research highly controversial
Stever (2011): critique of celebrity worship
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