A new avenue to reach out for the stars: The association of celebrity worship with problematic and nonproblematic social media use.

Abstract

Social media has opened an avenue for reciprocal interactions between celebrities and their fans, encouraging individuals with a tendency to become obsessed with celebrities to extend their online social network with celebrity friends. Celebrity worship has been associated with weak social skills and addictive behaviors (e.g., problematic Internet use, compulsive buying) in previous studies. This study investigated how interpersonal skills and addictive tendencies may affect the social media use of individuals fascinated by celebrities. A total of 368 Hungarian adolescents and adults (78.0% male; Mage = 24.6 years, SD = 7.5) completed an online questionnaire focusing on attitudes toward celebrities. A hierarchical linear regression analysis was performed, indicating that problematic but not heavy or extensive use is predictive of celebrity worship. Furthermore, friending on social media was not associated with celebrity worship. These findings extend previous research on the association between celebrity worship and addictive behaviors and provide further empirical evidence that problematic use is qualitatively different from overuse. Results also highlight the importance of identifying risky behaviors (e.g., social media use to alleviate negative feelings) to prevent highly engaged individuals from developing an excessive admiration toward their favorite media figure.

Celebrity worship and cognitive skills revisited: applying Cattell’s two-factor theory of intelligence in a cross-sectional study

“…An early study by Martin et al [ 2 ] proposed that celebrity worship may interfere with the information processing of individuals who are more prone to get absorbed in the personal details of a celebrity. Celebrity worship, as an excessive behavior, was also associated with several behavioral addictions (e.g., problematic Internet and social media use [ 7 , 8 ], compulsive buying [ 9 ], gambling addiction [ 10 ]), and these problematic behaviors are known to have negative effects on school/work performance, social relationships and cognitive functioning [ 11 ]. Therefore, it can be expected that excessive involvement with an admired celebrity may interfere with cognitive performance due to the limited ability to focus on other things than the celebrity.…”

Borderline Pathological Celebrity Worship and Impulsive Buying Intent: Mediating and Moderating Roles of Empathy and Gender

“…Aside from impulsive buying intent, previous studies have also indicated that celebrity worship differs between men and women. Zsila et al (2020) measured celebrity worship using the CAS and found the levels to be higher among women than men. Furthermore, men and women have been shown to have different patterns of celebrity worship behaviors.…”

Parasocial relationships and YouTube addiction: The role of viewer and YouTuber video characteristics

“…Alongside research about the influence of audience and media content's characteristics on PSR, previous literature also focused on the theoretical association between media use and PSR (Giles, 2002;Klimmt et al, 2006). Recent research has underlined that PSR are positively associated with social media use and more specifically with social media addiction (Baek et al, 2013;de Bérail et al, 2019;Lim et al, 2020;Zsila et al, 2021).…”