The phenomenon of hero worship is nothing new. Stuart Fischoff, a professor of media psychology at California State University, says that evolutionarily, humans adapted to recognize and imitate “alpha” males or females, to follow the leader of the “pack.” When taken to its extreme, however, this interest in celebrities can verge on obsessive or addictive behavior and can be classified as celebrity worship syndrome, a relatively new term first used in 2003 by James Chapman in the Daily Mail story “Do you worship the celebs?”. Some fan bases do resemble religions in their devotion to their celebrity gods—organizing conventions, performing rituals, and creating “altars” to their idols.
Scales have been developed to gauge the extent of celebrity worship, the most common being the Celebrity Attitude Scale (CAS). The CAS distinguishes between three levels of celebrity adoration, from relatively normal celebrity interest to more pathological obsession. The entertainment-social classification includes people who are attracted to a celebrity for the entertainment value and social community of other fans. The intense-personal dimension distinguishes fans who have compulsive feelings about their celebrity idol. The borderline-pathological classification includes people who have uncontrollable behaviors and/or fantasies relating to the celebrity. Some psychologists suggest this behavior may stem from a lack of real-life intimate relationships, with the celebrity adoration acting as a substitute for conventional relationships.
Researchers have found that people scoring at the high end of the scale have higher rates of related psychological and social issues with body image, interpersonal boundaries, narcissism, addiction, crime, stalking behavior, compulsion, depression, and anxiety.
No comments:
Post a Comment