Values of College Students in Iran and the United States Who Admire Celebrities

Is doomscrolling related to celebrity worship? A cross-cultural study

Building upon evidence supporting the co-occurrence of behavioural addictions, this study delved into the relationship between social media doomscrolling and celebrity worship among university student social media users in Iran and the United States. Objectives were threefold: (a) provide psychometric support for the Social Media Doomscrolling Scale (SMDS), (b) examine psychological correlates of doomscrolling and celebrity worship, and (c) explore the relationship between doomscrolling and celebrity worship. The SMDS demonstrated good psychometric properties in the US sample, like the original study of the SMDS conducted in an Iranian sample. Doomscrolling showed a positive association with future anxiety and a negative association with psychological well-being in both US and Iranian samples. Celebrity worship was positively linked with future anxiety in the Iranian and US samples. A positive correlation emerged between doomscrolling and celebrity worship in both the US and Iranian samples. This cross-cultural study offers preliminary evidence for the co-occurrence of two emerging media-related behavioural addictions.

Celebrity Worship Among Adolescents is Driven by Neuroticism, Avoidant Identity Style, and Need to Belong

Media celebrities can exert significant influence on societal change, and adolescents are the most vulnerable population to such influence given that this is a period when personal identity-seeking starts to become increasingly important. However, there is a lack of research examining the factors that contribute to adolescents' vulnerability to celebrity worship. The present study investigated the relationship between neuroticism, avoidant identity style, and celebrity worship among adolescents with a particular focus on mediating the role of the need to belong among a convenience sample of Iranian adolescents (N = 396; girls = 68%; age = 15.76 ± 1.99). Structural equation modeling showed that the association between avoidant identity style and celebrity worship was partially mediated by the need to belong, while the latter fully mediated the relationship between neuroticism and celebrity worship. The findings draw attention to the need to belong as an important factor underlying celebrity worship. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

Predicting the stalking of celebrities from measures of persistent pursuit and threat directed toward celebrities, sensation seeking and celebrity worship

The stalking of celebrities is a serious issue for thousands of celebrities worldwide who are occasionally confronted by fans who merit the label "fanatic." We administered measures of obnoxious celebrity stalking, celebrity worship, persistent pursuit of celebrities, threat directed toward celebrities, boredom susceptibility, disinhibition, experience seeking, thrill and adventure seeking, relationship styles, and anger to 596 college students from the U.S.A. We developed a model consisting of all but the latter five measures that successfully predicted actual obnoxious stalking behaviors of celebrities. Our results partially replicate earlier research and presents some new findings. Individuals who have personal thoughts about their favorite celebrity frequently, feel compelled to learn more about them, pursue them consistently, threatened to harm them and were prone to boredom were more likely to engage in celebrity stalking. Controlling for these predictors, individuals who admire their favorite celebrity almost exclusively because of their ability to entertain were less likely to engage in celebrity stalking.