The Phenomenon of Celebrity Worship: why do we care about celebrities so much?

  

If you go to any news website, scattered among the articles about bombings in a middle eastern country, the next Facebook update, a new health scare, and a mass shooting, inevitably somewhere in the lineup will be a story about Kim Kardashian, Taylor Swift, Harry Styles or another rich 20something who may or may not possess talent. Yet America still seems to care about them. Why is this? Why do we idolize these people who we have never met, and why do we care that they just bought another home, or sold 10 million copies of their new book or CD? And why is it that when you ask a ten year old what they want to be when they grow up, a common answer is rich and famous? There’s a whole psychology behind this and a variety of reasons as to why we care about these people. We find their lives interesting and relatable, and we grow to believe that we “know” these people because of the accessibility of information on their lives, as well as the presence of social media websites like twitter. 

           

There is near constant coverage of these peoples lives (Pappas), there’s no way we can possibly escape it and as they say, “if you can’t beat em', join em'.” Virtually everyone has heard of the Kardashian family, and because of this they serve as what Jacob Weisberg refers to as a “social lubricant” –kind of like the weather, celebrities serve as a common ground for people to talk about. Chances are, if you run into someone on the street and mention Kim Kardashian they’ll know who you’re talking about, making it an easy conversation topic (Weisberg). This is because to many, celebrities’ lives are interesting. Their 72 day marriages, their divorces, DUI’s- it’s all on the public stage and we all just like to watch a train-wreck happening for the whole world to see. And aside from being interesting it can be just plain fun to talk about, for no reason what so ever, especially because more often than not, this will not be something the average person experiences for themselves (Enlow; Rosenbaum).         

Because their lives are interesting to many, people enjoy “living vicariously” through celebrities, breakups, fame, fortune and all. Because some of…most of us are not going to achieve that status of “having it all.” The reason behind this, could be purely out of jealousy, out of admiration or somewhere in between (Weisberg). However, on the same token, everyone enjoys watching a train wreck, even if they don’t want to admit it. It’s human nature, people somehow enjoy the suffering of others in a way, especially the suffering of those who seem to have everything they could ever want at their fingertips, its called schadenfreude. It makes us feel better about our lives, and the mistakes we make because “hey at least I didn’t screw up as bad as Lindsay Lohan” (Weisberg; Rosenbaum). 

     The interesting life of a celebrity is not the only reason people seem to care about these people that have become ingrained into our culture (Heflick; Enlow). According to Daniel Kruger, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Michigan, having what’s called a “parasocial” or one-sided relationship with a celebrity has become easier than ever. This is another possible reason for our fascination. Here’s how it works: Justin Bieber will go on Ellen and share details about his life, and this phenomenon is only reinforced with sites such as Twitter and Instagram where stars will interact with their fans (Pappas). Social media creates a perceived proximity between celebrities and their fans. Celebrities share details about their lives on these social media sites just like peoples actual friends do, which in turn creates the illusion of a genuine relationship between the celebrity and the fan. In some fan’s eyes, it seems like they “know” these celebrities as well as their family, friends and boyfriends do (Chamorro-Premuzic). According to Robert Wright, author of The Moral Animal, our brains do not distinguish between gossip about people we actually know and gossip about celebrities, its not an instinct that we have, and with social media playing such a large role in the lives of many of us, this kind of gossip is everywhere, farther reinforcing the idea that we can “know” these people (Weisberg).

There is another reason behind the average person caring about what celebrities do and that’s because certain celebrities on some level may be relatable to their fans. Whether it is because they are involved in some sort of charity work or whether it be because Taylor Swift plays the guitar and you do too, this could play into why someone would pay attention to what’s happening in a certain celebrities life. Especially if they are someone they, for some reason or another, hope to emulate (Brasch). While the celebrities life may seem unattainable, they have certain qualities about them that we find relatable and we are reminded that they are people too, they’re just like us…kind of. In a recent survey released by Variety, it was revealed that teenagers especially seemed to like Youtube stars over the traditional celebrity because they were more open and relatable. They found a beauty blogger making videos with her webcam “realer” then a multimillionaire movie star with a personal stylist, and seemed to prefer the realness and relatabilty over the “fakeness” of Hollywood. That very quality of being relatable certainly increasingly becoming a reason as to why we care about celebrities in Hollywood, and online (Dewey).

Whether it be because you find a celebrity to be relatable, and have a quality of “realness” to them, or because you simply find their life to be interesting, there are many reasons as to why society cares about the rich 20somethings who may or may not possess talent that I spoke of earlier in the blog. While at first glance it may seem trivial, talking about celebrities is actually partially our society dissecting what we do and do not value in our culture (Enlow), and we can even feel as though we are participating in a hugely important belief system because they have become so ingrained into our culture (Heflick; Enlow). And sometimes its partially just because people enjoy watching a trainwreck, or find celebrity gossip fun, and why shouldn’t it be? Whatever the reason is, we all have at least one reason why we care about the seemingly trivial life of a rich 20something who has it all…or at least seems like they do. Because of the celebrity that each person seeks inside themselves, the culture of celebrity worship is going nowhere soon!

Works Cited

Brasch, Nicolas. "Celebrities - Why Do We Care?" The Age. Fairfax Media, 8 Jan. 2012. Web. 13 Oct. 2015. <http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/celebrities--why-do-we-care-20120107-1ppcc.html>.

Chamorro-Premuzic, Tomas. "Kim Kardashian: Why We Love Her and the Psychology of Celebrity Worship." The Guardian. Guardian News, 14 Aug. 2014. Web. 13 Oct. 2015. <http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2014/aug/14/kim-kardashian-psychology-celebrity-worship-social-media>.

Dewey, Caitlin. "The Surprisingly Profound Reason Why Teenagers Love YouTube Celebrities." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 7 Aug. 2014. Web. 16 Oct. 2015. <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/08/07/the-surprisingly-profound-reason-why-teenagers-love-youtube-celebrities/>.

Enlow, Courtney. "Why Do We Care?: Entertainment Journalism, Celebrity Gossip and Pajiba's Place in It All." Pajiba. Pajiba, 30 Aug. 2013. Web. 13 Oct. 2015. <http://www.pajiba.com/celebrities_are_better_than_you/why-do-we-care-entertainment-journalism-celebrity-gossip-and-pajibas-place-in-it-all.php>.

Heflick, Nathan A. "Why We Are Obsessed with Celebrities." Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers, LLC, 9 Dec. 2009. Web. 13 Oct. 2015. <https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-big-questions/200912/why-we-are-obsessed-celebrities>.

Pappas, Stephanie. "Oscar Psychology: Why Celebrities Fascinate Us." LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 24 Feb. 2012. Web. 13 Oct. 2015. <http://www.livescience.com/18649-oscar-psychology-celebrity-worship.html>.

Rosenbaum, Phil. "Celebrities Misbehave. Why Do We Care?" CNN. Cable News Network, 02 Sept. 2010. Web. 16 Oct. 2015. <http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/celebrity.news.gossip/08/25/celebs.misbehaving/>.

Weisberg, Jacob. "Charlie Sheen's Magnetic Meltdown: Why Do People Care about Celebrities?" Slate. The Slate Group, 3 Mar. 2011. Web. 13 Oct. 2015. <http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_big_idea/2011/03/the_irresistible_charlie_sheen.html>.

Photographs from

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