More explanations for celebrity attraction

More explanations for celebrity attraction

•          Social theories: celebrities are role models

•          Evolutionary: model behaviour on successful people.

•          Religiosity: as religion declines, fascination with celebrity rises.

Social psychological explanations

•          Social learning theory – Celebrities act as role models because we identify with them. They are also a source of vicarious reinforcement (when they do well, we feel better about ourselves).

•          Q: Think about how to use an approaches synoptic point here!

•          Social construction theory – Celebrity is a social construction of the media, e.g. magazines and fan clubs on the internet. Social constructionism proposes that all of the phenomena around us (such as scientific knowledge) are constructed and maintained through social interactions; all knowledge is related to the social/cultural context.

•          The media creates the attractiveness of celebrity in order to serve their own ends (greater sales) – they socially construct the celebrity aspect.

•          Q: Are people really this shallow? Do they demonstrated such environmental determinism?

•          Social identity theory– Membership of fan clubs and shared admiration for certain celebrities contributes to our social identity. The attraction of celebrity is that it is a means to define your social group and, therefore, yourself. Can be a positive thing.

   Q: Need one evaluative point here.

•          Group cohesion– Celebrities provide a common topic to talk about that helps build up social networks. It is safer to gossip about celebrities than about the people you know.

   Q: Is this a plausible explanation?

•          Leadership– Groups of people search for leaders,…