Celebrity Worship Essay

Kim Kardashian, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Kanye West, Orlando Bloom. These are names recognized in a majority of households worldwide. Many people enjoy following up on their favorite celebrities but in some cases things may be taken too far. Throughout history fans have been taking their obsession with famous people to an extreme and dangerous level. From John Lennon’s murder to the Kylie Jenner lip challenge people can be seen causing harm to both themselves and other people due to an unhealthy obsession with celebrities and their want to follow the fandom. While many people worship celebrities and follow their lifestyles closely, through societal pressure and idolization of celebrities as authoritative figures, this fandom can lead to

Each of these levels are caused by many different personality aspects and outside influences and they can have a wide range of outcomes both good and bad.

Just as before Philip Zimbardo and Stanley Milgram’s experiments, there is little statistical data to define the exact causes of celebrity worship however, scientists have developed many theories. One of the most popular ideas is that celebrity worshipper’s are searching for identity in the celebrities. Psychologists Lynn McCutcheon and James Houran believe this theory is true and developed a model to demonstrate this idea. They believe the people use celebrities to fill the holes and cope with issues in their lives and “that people should tend to get interested in celebrities at times when they are looking for direction in life” (Douglas). This is similar to the idea from Crispin Sartwell that states people are capable of doing evil things when told to do so by an authoritative figure as a “deference to authority” because celebrity worshipper’s may see celebrities as authoritative figures just as people who have committed acts of genocide are following people they see as authoritative figures. Since

Psychologists believe “[being a fan of] a celebrity does not make you dysfunctional, but it does put you at risk of being so. There is this progression of behaviours and if you start we don’t know what’s going to stop you” (Douglas). Many experiments have been done to find exactly who is at risk of reaching the dysfunctional level, however all have found that “CWS [Celebrity Worship Syndrome] affects people of all ages and both sexes.” Eventually psychologists may be able to pinpoint the exact type of person who could go crazy in their obsession with a celebrity but at the moment they believe everyone is susceptible just as they believe Szegedy-Maszak’s suggestion that all people have the potential for torture. Anyone living is believed to be capable of doing extreme things that can cause them regret and trauma for years to come whether it is as current as celebrity worship or as ancient as the brutality of war however, the reasons are not yet