Obsessions with celebrities
What to Know About Celebrity Worship Syndrome I Psych Central
Celebrity worship can mean shaping your life around someone with whom you’ve never had meaningful interactions.
People are amazing. They can do incredible things and are capable of impressive feats of athleticism, creativity, and ingenuity.
When someone reaches celebrity status, it’s natural to admire them for their accomplishments. You may even find yourself following their journey on social media or sharing in the joy of their recreational experiences.
The celebrity may even influence your life. You might feel motivated to travel, do humanitarian work, or make lifestyle changes, for example.
But when a celebrity is always on your mind, or you feel your identity depends on their identity, you may be experiencing celebrity worship syndrome.
Celebrity worship syndrome is a type of parasocial relationship that occurs when admiration of a celebrity shifts into an obsessive fascination and preoccupation.
It’s been described as an obsessive-addictive disorder, though it’s not a clinically recognized condition in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5).
Like all parasocial relationships, celebrity worship syndrome can be considered a one-sided, nonreciprocal relationship.
It involves one person who is investing a lot of time and energy into a connection with someone (in this case, a celebrity) who often doesn’t know the admirer exists.
Parasocial interactions and relationships aren’t uncommon — or necessarily negative. Connections you feel toward celebrities, or even fictional characters can impart positive lessons in life.
But celebrity worship syndrome is more than a parasocial relationship. It’s a pattern of behaviors that are often obsessive, compulsive, and addictive.
Experts believe it exists on a continuum, and several scales have been developed to measure its level of intensity.
One of the most prominent scales, the Celebrity Attitudes Scale, was developed in 2002 and is designed to assess celebrity worship levels and how each level impacts mental well-being.
As many as one-third of the general public may experience celebrity worship on a borderline pathological level.
There’s no known direct cause of celebrity worship syndrome.
As a condition with obsessive-addictive properties, the presence of certain mental health conditions may play a role in the development of celebrity worship.
People who may have a higher chance of developing celebrity worship tendencies include those living with:
- anxious-ambivalent and avoidant attachment styles
- neuroticism
- psychoticism
- materialism
- minimal religious orientation
- fantasy proneness
- low self-esteem
- narcissism
- cognitive inflexibility (being uncompromising on beliefs)
- poor intimate relationship quality
- difficulty coping with conflict
- depression
- anxiety
- obsessive-compulsive disorders and behaviors (compulsive shopping, for example)
- dissociation
- poor personal boundaries
- addictive disorders
According to a 2018 study, other factors that may increase your chances of developing celebrity worship syndrome include daydreaming about the celebrity, having a strong desire to be famous, and compulsive behaviors such as obsessive internet use.
When something exists on a continuum — such as celebrity worship — it may present in various ways and intensities.
Celebrity worship can be mild in some cases. For example, you may name your firstborn child after your celebrity idol or change the way you dress based on your favorite celebrity.
The obsessive-addictive properties of celebrity worship can also present in more intense ways.
Having cosmetic surgery to look like your favorite celebrity, for example, could be considered celebrity worship.
Harassment, stalking, or otherwise inappropriate attempts at interaction can also be a display of celebrity worship at its extreme.
Celebrity worship syndrome doesn’t always turn your life upside down, but it does have the potential to impact your daily life.
Relationships
Relationships — intimate, family, friends, and professional — can decline under the demands of celebrity worship.
You may avoid in-person social events, for example, in favor of online celebrity-oriented media, such as live streams or status updates.
You might unfairly compare your romantic partners to celebrity ideals or ignore your partner in favor of perceived celebrity connections.
In the business world, you may not be open to certain opportunities if they don’t feel aligned with what your favorite celebrity supports or represents.
Personal well-being
While celebrity worship can affect those around you, it can also have a significant impact on your well-being.
Celebrity worship may be a manifestation of obsessive or addictive disorders, driving you toward harmful behaviors related to a celebrity, such as harassment.
You might go through unnecessary medical procedures or harsh treatments in an attempt to look more like your celebrity idol.
You may constantly compare yourself to your favorite celebrity if you have low self-esteem. You might talk down to yourself or be overly critical if you don’t live up to what you consider to be their standard.
Worshiping a celebrity may make you follow product endorsements that don’t make sense for your current situation.
You could end up in financial distress as a result of purchases related to celebrity worship.
Are there positive consequences?
Having a parasocial relationship with a celebrity doesn’t mean that you will develop negative behaviors or lose relationships.
Some parasocial relationships can motivate you, help you learn healthy habits, and encourage positive lifestyle changes.
Admiring people around you, especially those who have reached celebrity status, can be natural. These people often have something about them you relate to — something that draws you in and captivates you.
But the nature of celebrity worship syndrome goes beyond admiration in some cases and could even cross over into obsessive-addictive behaviors.
If you feel as though you, or someone you care about, are displaying unhelpful behaviors related to celebrity worship, speaking with a mental health care professional can help.
If you’re unsure where to start, you can check out Psych Central’s hub for finding mental health support.
What to Know About Celebrity Worship Syndrome I Psych Central
Celebrity worship can mean shaping your life around someone with whom you’ve never had meaningful interactions.
People are amazing. They can do incredible things and are capable of impressive feats of athleticism, creativity, and ingenuity.
When someone reaches celebrity status, it’s natural to admire them for their accomplishments. You may even find yourself following their journey on social media or sharing in the joy of their recreational experiences.
The celebrity may even influence your life. You might feel motivated to travel, do humanitarian work, or make lifestyle changes, for example.
But when a celebrity is always on your mind, or you feel your identity depends on their identity, you may be experiencing celebrity worship syndrome.
Celebrity worship syndrome is a type of parasocial relationship that occurs when admiration of a celebrity shifts into an obsessive fascination and preoccupation.
It’s been described as an obsessive-addictive disorder, though it’s not a clinically recognized condition in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5).
Like all parasocial relationships, celebrity worship syndrome can be considered a one-sided, nonreciprocal relationship.
It involves one person who is investing a lot of time and energy into a connection with someone (in this case, a celebrity) who often doesn’t know the admirer exists.
Parasocial interactions and relationships aren’t uncommon — or necessarily negative. Connections you feel toward celebrities, or even fictional characters can impart positive lessons in life.
But celebrity worship syndrome is more than a parasocial relationship. It’s a pattern of behaviors that are often obsessive, compulsive, and addictive.
Experts believe it exists on a continuum, and several scales have been developed to measure its level of intensity.
One of the most prominent scales, the Celebrity Attitudes Scale, was developed in 2002 and is designed to assess celebrity worship levels and how each level impacts mental well-being.
As many as one-third of the general public may experience celebrity worship on a borderline pathological level.
There’s no known direct cause of celebrity worship syndrome.
As a condition with obsessive-addictive properties, the presence of certain mental health conditions may play a role in the development of celebrity worship.
People who may have a higher chance of developing celebrity worship tendencies include those living with:
- anxious-ambivalent and avoidant attachment styles
- neuroticism
- psychoticism
- materialism
- minimal religious orientation
- fantasy proneness
- low self-esteem
- narcissism
- cognitive inflexibility (being uncompromising on beliefs)
- poor intimate relationship quality
- difficulty coping with conflict
- depression
- anxiety
- obsessive-compulsive disorders and behaviors (compulsive shopping, for example)
- dissociation
- poor personal boundaries
- addictive disorders
According to a 2018 study, other factors that may increase your chances of developing celebrity worship syndrome include daydreaming about the celebrity, having a strong desire to be famous, and compulsive behaviors such as obsessive internet use.
When something exists on a continuum — such as celebrity worship — it may present in various ways and intensities.
Celebrity worship can be mild in some cases. For example, you may name your firstborn child after your celebrity idol or change the way you dress based on your favorite celebrity.
The obsessive-addictive properties of celebrity worship can also present in more intense ways.
Having cosmetic surgery to look like your favorite celebrity, for example, could be considered celebrity worship.
Harassment, stalking, or otherwise inappropriate attempts at interaction can also be a display of celebrity worship at its extreme.
Celebrity worship syndrome doesn’t always turn your life upside down, but it does have the potential to impact your daily life.
Relationships
Relationships — intimate, family, friends, and professional — can decline under the demands of celebrity worship.
You may avoid in-person social events, for example, in favor of online celebrity-oriented media, such as live streams or status updates.
You might unfairly compare your romantic partners to celebrity ideals or ignore your partner in favor of perceived celebrity connections.
In the business world, you may not be open to certain opportunities if they don’t feel aligned with what your favorite celebrity supports or represents.
Personal well-being
While celebrity worship can affect those around you, it can also have a significant impact on your well-being.
Celebrity worship may be a manifestation of obsessive or addictive disorders, driving you toward harmful behaviors related to a celebrity, such as harassment.
You might go through unnecessary medical procedures or harsh treatments in an attempt to look more like your celebrity idol.
You may constantly compare yourself to your favorite celebrity if you have low self-esteem. You might talk down to yourself or be overly critical if you don’t live up to what you consider to be their standard.
Worshiping a celebrity may make you follow product endorsements that don’t make sense for your current situation.
You could end up in financial distress as a result of purchases related to celebrity worship.
Are there positive consequences?
Having a parasocial relationship with a celebrity doesn’t mean that you will develop negative behaviors or lose relationships.
Some parasocial relationships can motivate you, help you learn healthy habits, and encourage positive lifestyle changes.
Admiring people around you, especially those who have reached celebrity status, can be natural. These people often have something about them you relate to — something that draws you in and captivates you.
But the nature of celebrity worship syndrome goes beyond admiration in some cases and could even cross over into obsessive-addictive behaviors.
If you feel as though you, or someone you care about, are displaying unhelpful behaviors related to celebrity worship, speaking with a mental health care professional can help.
If you’re unsure where to start, you can check out Psych Central’s hub for finding mental health support.
why fans go crazy with love for an idol
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900 —02 — However, very often it develops into an unhealthy feeling of obsession with the object of one's worship. Very often, celebrities face the manic love of a fan, not only while in public. How such love can end for a celebrity and what to do if a “maddened” fan runs towards you, Vechernyaya Moskva learned from star psychotherapist Yevgeny Fomin.According to the specialist, the reasons that make a fan behave inappropriately actively when meeting an artist lie in the feelings experienced “together” with a particular media person:
— This is a very individual story. After all, we, listening to the songs of our favorite artist, connect his work and compositions with our lives. The artist seems to guess our feelings, which brings him and the star even closer, as it seems to the fan.
In fact, his relationship with the adored artist is based solely on his feelings and emotions. Even if you meet your favorite actor, whom you are used to seeing on the screens every day and consider your family to the board, you remain a stranger to him. A celebrity doesn't have the same relationship background with you as you do with him.
Many fans, the expert clarified, think the opposite: the artist knows his fan a priori. Thus, it is believed that if he demonstrates his devotion to the maximum, then the artist will not reject him for anything in the world.
— Such fan love, turning into an unhealthy feeling of obsession, can end badly. A fan can start stalking, that is, chasing the artist everywhere, he can even attempt to attack or begin to take revenge if at some point the artist he adores reacts sharply or offends his feelings, the expert noted.
The media personalities themselves, who become objects of adoration, should treat their fans with the utmost delicacy and respect.
After all, one wrong step, and from the category of loved ones you can go into the category of “hated”, the psychotherapist added:
- If a fan runs to the star in the most inadequate state, the surest step is to show kindness, not drive away or insult the person. You need to be correct until the guards or police officers arrive.
If a fan shows his fan loyalty in an aggressive way, causing injury or any form of psychological pressure, then only administrative measures can help.
The fan himself, who understands that he is going crazy with love for an artist, should understand for himself why he is so attached to a particular person. If introspection does not help, this is a clear sign that it is time to go to the psychologist's office.
At the end of June, during a concert in Yekaterinburg, the singer MakSim was attacked by a female fan. The lady, being in a state of alcoholic intoxication, burst onto the stage to hug the performer of the hit “Do You Know”.
As a result, a fan knocked a celebrity to the floor. Security guards came to the aid of the star.
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Why we love celebrities: An anthropologist's answer
Why are we so obsessed with celebrities? Because of the evolutionary nature of their brains, argues anthropologist Jamie Tegrani.
I like aphorisms.
One of my favorites is from Mark Twain: "Sorry for the long letter - I didn't have time for a short one."
I often apologize this way to friends and colleagues for my sophistication. This is an accurate and subtle observation. It would seem, purely Twain.
But it does not belong to Twain. I was recently told that the real author of the quote is the lesser-known French thinker Blaise Pascal. I checked - indeed, Pascal used these words in a letter to his colleague as early as 1657.
And it turns out that I was wrong not only about this quote.
I think many have heard Einstein's brilliant aphorism: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but each time expecting a different result." This is perhaps the most famous phrase of the great physicist after "E = mc ²".
But there is no evidence that he spoke it. These words were first printed in a 1981 Addicts Anonymous pamphlet, almost 25 years after Einstein's death.
And there are many similar examples.
Winston Churchill, Benjamin Franklin and Martin Luther King did not say, probably, even half of what is attributed to them. After all, quotes sound more weighty when they are put into the mouths of witty and wise men.
This is normal. Attributing smart ideas to prominent people is just an example of a more general trend: putting celebrities on a pedestal.
Caption before photo,Albert Einstein and Mark Twain did not say the phrases that are attributed to them
Fame is a powerful cultural magnet.
As hypersocial beings, we get most of our knowledge and skills by copying others, not by trial and error.
And at the same time - we pay more attention to the behavior of famous people than ordinary members of the community.
It turns out that various phenomena are more likely to succeed if they are associated with someone famous - even if by mistake? Perhaps the one who speaks is no less important than the meaning of what was said?
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Another example of how “cultural magnets” act often. famous people who are not directly related to their success, such as clothes, hairstyles, speeches.
That's why companies use stars to advertise.
Celebrities are always in the public eye, and if they wear your jeans or watch, the public will notice.
But it's not just about getting as many people as possible to see your products. From a picture on television or in a newspaper, you won't know what kind of underpants Beckham is wearing or what kind of perfume Beyoncé is wearing.
Celebrities promote such products because business people know that fame actively influences our perception of values. Celebrities make products not only visible, but desirable.
But why? It is believed that celebrity culture emerged relatively recently, that it is a product of the media and atomized society.
This phenomenon is indeed modern, but it is based on deep human instincts - instincts that played a key role in the emergence of our culture and allowed our species to successfully evolve.
It's about prestige. This is one of the forms of social status, based on respect and admiration from the members of the community.
It is of great interest to anthropologists because it is a unique characteristic of our species. In addition, this phenomenon is universal, that is, one that exists in every human community.
In other primates, social hierarchies are predominantly based on dominance. It differs from prestige in that it is based on fear and violence.
Ordinary members of the community submit to dominant animals because getting in their way is to challenge their status, which they will defend by force. Many human hierarchies are also based on dominance.
But in addition, we also have a system of prestige, which is maintained voluntarily. The status of prestige is assigned to individuals for their achievements in a certain area, and is not established by force.
Caption before photo,The social hierarchies of other primates are based primarily on dominance
Where did this phenomenon come from? The most convincing theory is that it is one of a number of devices by which we have been able to learn.
At some point, our ancestors began to notice and reward individuals with exceptional skills, as well as to learn from them.
Thanks to this, individual discoveries (for example, knowledge about the healing properties of herbs or the optimal design of weapons) could spread throughout the population, as well as be inherited. Each next generation used and improved the wisdom of their ancestors.
Therefore, in general, the tendency to imitate talents is useful. But sometimes it makes us copy unimportant and sometimes harmful features.
Why? Because this ability of ours is very general: we adopt role models in general, and not specific knowledge or skills. That is why this tool is so flexible and powerful: the traits that make a person successful are different in different circumstances, so it makes sense to copy someone who excelled in something at a certain time and in a certain place.
That's why we adopt the entire behavioral complex of famous people, in particular those traits that have nothing to do with their success.
For example, men can observe that a real hunter, making stone arrowheads, says some spells. And they will accept this ritual along with its stone processing technique.
In my opinion, this explains our interest in what people wear, what they drive, or where they shop.
Caption before photo,In ancient societies it was considered prestigious, for example, hunting skills
In the past, minor traits that we adopted from leaders were compensated by useful ones. Therefore, in the long run, it was an effective and adaptive strategy.
But does it remain so today? I'm not sure.
Today's world is very different from the one in which our brains evolved, and I believe that the initially beneficial tendency to imitate leaders has degenerated into an unhealthy obsession with celebrities who get much more attention than they deserve.
Let me give you an analogy with food. Our ancestors developed a love for sweets and fats because it stimulated them to get ripe fruits and nutrient-rich meats.
But in today's world with its mass production of confectionery and intensive agriculture, this trait of ours only leads to an epidemic of obesity and related diseases.
The media is the same junk food for the brain: fast, convenient, but not healthy. We consume images of wealth and success because they satisfy our craving for prestige. But are current celebrities really worthy of emulation?
By asking this question, I do not mean the scandalous antics of drunken actors or football players. No, I'm interested in a general problem: what is the purpose of the modern celebrity phenomenon?
In ancient societies, the list of role models was clearly defined: master hunters or gatherers, good parents, perhaps experts in rituals.
But in our society, with its complex class system, division of labor and mixture of cultures, the criteria for success are much more varied and less transparent. Many celebrities have succeeded in areas that we are unlikely to ever try our hand at, such as professional sports or music.
