The attraction of celebrity

Starter Task: What do you know about these celebrities? Why do you
think people are interested in following them?

Why are we attracted to celebrities?

There

are

three

social

psychological

explanations

of

parasocial

relationships and celebrity worship. The absorption-addiction model and

attachment theory believe that individuals form parasocial relationships
because they are unable to make real, fulfilling relationships.

The

positive-active view takes a more optimistic view. Outline these below.

The absorptionaddiction model

(McCutcheon et
al, 2002)

Attachment
Theory (McCann,
2001)

The
positive/active
view (Jenkins and
Jenson, 1992)

Supporting Research.
Maltby et al. (2001) tested for possible links between celebrity worship
and poor mental health using a CAS scale. Outline the research in the
box below.

McCutcheon et al. (2006) wanted to see whether there was a link

between insecure attachments and celebrity following.

Outline their

research here.

Evolutionary explanations of celebrity worship:

The main evolutionary explanation of celebrity worship is the prestige
hypothesis.

As with all evolutionary explanations, the prestige

hypothesis looks as how behaviours seen in todays society may have had
survival advantages in our evolutionary past.
Outline of the hypothesis:

Evaluation:

Measuring attraction to celebrities:

One way in which attraction to celebrities is measured is through the
Celebrity Attitude Scale which was created by McCutcheon in 2002. The
scale consists of 23 items which are scored on a Likert scale ranging from
1 to 5. The scale consists of three sub-scales which look a little like so:
Sub-scale 1:

Sub-scale 2:

Sub-scale 3:

The results of the CAS scale allow psychologists to identify three

different levels of parasocial relationship which range from harmless to
serious.
These can also be seen in stages as outlined below.
Level 1:

Level 2:

Level 3:

Homework 6:
Discuss

how

evolutionary

psychology

explains

the

attraction

of

celebrity and/or celebrity worship. [4 marks].

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Discuss how social psychology explains the attraction of celebrity.

[ 4 marks + 6 marks].

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