The Attraction of Celebrity

Para-social relationships

Para-social relationship = a relationship in which an individual is attracted to a celebrity without that targeted person's awareness
A bond of intimacy is created even though there is no social relationship
Viewers believe that the person on screen is communicating directly to them
There is no risk of rejection as no relationship is formed
Schipper (2007) - meta-analysis found that para-social relationships were more likely to form with attarctive celebrities with another important factor being if the figure was percieved as "real" or not
Tsao suggests that manipulation of experimental variables may identify the cause of psr's, refers to Noble's study of light and psr's
Maltby found a link between attitudes towards celebrities and eating disorders
Psr's can offer benifits with celebrity modelling of pro-social behaviours

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humans posess a love for novelty and so choose partners based on increased creativity, which fits what musicians and TV stars do
Shiraishi (2006)- found an enzyme correlated with novelty seeking tendancies suggesting a genetic basis to neophelia BUT this fails to tell us why there is a preferance for it
DeBackar suggests gossip functions to construct and manipulate reputations, and we gossip about celebrities

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Maltby et al found that 1.3 of their sample scored higher than midpoint on the celebrity attitudes scale, with 2% on borderline pathological
Cheung and Yue found that idol worship was related to low self esteem and poor work/study habits
A positive outcome of celebrity worship is an increase in self esteem
Profile suicides also increase suicide rates. Sheriden (2007) also points to the impact of rebellious celebrities who draw more pathological types to them
Evolutionary psychologists suggest that it is only natural to look towards those who have suceeeded
It is suggested that high levels of religiosity will result in low levels of idol worship, this being supported by Maltby's results on the CAS

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