Chapter 2: Discussion

Chapter 2

Discussion

A. The Negative Result Of Celebrity Influence

As the researcher mentioned earlier, it was studied that people imitate celebrities because it has been part of human nature to copy what they have observed from their surroundings. And since celebrities play a huge role in our individual lives, it is only expected that people may adapt their behavior, style, way of living, etc.

Mariah Carey is an influencial artist. Her name is known across the world, even to children who are less older than a fourth of her age. And as a prominent figure, Mariah should act accordingly in order to be a good influence; that does not seem to be the case. Although, Mariah doesn't do drugs which is a very common problem when it comes to celebrity influence. There have been many incidents that show Mariah Carey's bad attributes. When it comes to her personality, her huge ego is just one. She also happens to have narcissistic personality traits, she gets into clashes with other celebrities most of the time, for the very reason that she always acts like a diva. She is often inferred to as insecure after talking down to people in the same field as hers like Jennifer Lopez, Nicki Minaj and Madonna to name a few.

On this article “The Miley Effect: Do Celebrities Shape Kids' Values?” by Malia Jacobson of parentmap.com (http://www.parentmap.com/article/the-miley-effect-do-celebrities-shape-kids-values) it was said that “A 2006 study by USA Weekend (http://159.54.226.237/06_issues/060521/060521teens_and_celebs_full.html) found that half of teens agree that peers are more likely to smoke or drink because they see celebrities do it. Over three-quarters of teens think that their peers are likely to diet after a star loses weight, and some 60 percent say peers want to copy a celebrity’s tattoos and piercings.” It is an inevitable effect that happens to most teenagers today.

And apparently, drinking, smoking, drug usage aren't the only bad influences people can aquire from celebrities. Malia said “Pop culture does more than glamorize damaging behaviors like drinking and smoking for kids and young adults — it can also distort their worldview. Research from the University of Calgary (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2958.2001.tb00788.x/abstract) found that 60 percent of college students admitted a celebrity had influenced their beliefs, attitudes and personal values.”

Not only can celebrity influence cause us to start bad habits it also gives us a bad perception of the world and destroy our morals. But if celebrities are deemed more of a bad influence then why are people still following them?

B. Celebrity Influence and it's Impact in Human Lives

Celebrities have been a part of the society and their everyday lives meaning, celebrities play a major role in people's lives. There are many factors to determine how they spread their influence.On an article entitled “Celebrity Role Models Prove to be 'Influential Teachers'” by Dr Charlotte De Backer on le.ac.uk (http://www.le.ac.uk/ebulletin-archive/ebulletin/news/press-releases/2000-2009/2007/12/nparticle.2007-12-18.html), several factors were mentioned.

1. Albert Bandura's Social Learning Theory

According to psychologist, Albert Bandura’s social learning theory (1977), humans learn about the world through observing the behaviour of others. People decide on their own values about behaviour. And since these celebrities are basically seen every where, people will most likely follow their footsteps. Logically, people are likely to imitate the behaviour of successful people. Dr Charlotte De Backer conducted a study and found that celebrities are seen as being "higher status or more successful others" which means that people are more likely to mimic their overall behavior pattern.

2. Dr Charlotte De Backer's Parasocial Hypothesis

Dr Charlotte also came up with a theory called the Parasocial Hypothesis based on Horton & Wohl's (1956) original concept of parasocialinteraction that states“bonds are parasocial, or one-way because the celebrity reveals private information (often involuntary), and the audience members respond emotionally to this, but there is no feedback of the private life of the audience going to the celebrity (or hardly ever), and nor do celebrities display emotions towards their audience.”

3. Celebrities as social tools

Asides from being famous and attaining a really high social status, celebrities are said to be a social tool in order for humans to interact with one another. In the same study conducted by Dr Charlotte De Backer, it was also stated that older people were interested in celebrity gossip not because they wanted to learn about the celebrities, but because it helped them to form social networks with other people. Celebrities create social trends that can interconnect people with each other.

4. Man's natural attraction to trends

Added to that, people are naturally attracted to trends. Whether we deny it or not, there are no exceptions in this matter. And one of the most powrful and influencial trends today exsists in the celebrity world since celebrities are considered as trend setters. Say, in order for a new establishment, brand or company to make it big, they usually hire celebrities to endorse their product or service, thus, starting a trend.

In conclusion, celebrity behavior heavily influences not only young people, but the society as a whole.

C. The unusual psychology behind celebrity worship

“The Psychology of Celebrity Worship” is an article written by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. from psychcentral.com (http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2008/11/23/the-psychology-of-celebrity-worship/) and it perfectly explains the reason behind celebrity worship. John stated that it is still considered healthy if it is done for purely entertainment purposes only such as casually reading and learning about a celebrity. Such activies would likely reflect an extraverted personality. But if a person gets emotionally involved with a certain celebrity's life and at extreme cases have been dealing with empathy for a celebrity's successes and failures while obsessing over minute details about the celebrity's life, they most likely exhibit borderline pathological behavior and traits of psychoticism.

There is nothing wrong with keeping up with celebrities as a hobby or a past-time. The only time this case gets serious is when a person look at celebrities as role models or people whom they pattern their own lives after. People who are in the extreme cases suffer from low self-esteem. John mentioned “people with the most extreme celebrity worship engage in an attributional style that believes the cause of most events in the person’s life are external, that is, they are outside the control of the person experiencing the event. People who have stable, global attributions share such an attribution style with people who are depressed. So people who have the most extreme celebrity worship look to the outside world for explanations, and believe celebrities might hold a piece of that cure.” meaning that people who are engaged in extreme celebrity worship look for answers about themselves in the outside world since they believe that it is the cause of most events that happen in their lives.

Celebrity worship can be found most in female teenagers between ages 14 to 16. John stated “Teens seek positive role models that they can emulate. Sadly, our culture continuously reinforces the important and value of celebrities, so it’s no shock that teenage girls might focus their attention on them.” Since celebrities are being treated as much of a big deal in today's society, it is no surprise that people in general turn to them.

In addition, everyone wants someone who he/she can relate to. And that's one of the keys on why people look up to celebrities. “we’re seeking a sign of humanity that we can relate to and that feels familiar to us, despite how far away, unreal, and unattainable such lives really are.” said John.