Social psychological explanations of celebrity
attraction - social learning theory
SLT - how it can explain celebrity attraction
SLT would suggest that we are attracted to celebrities because we
have qualities that we admire because they have led to success
we want to be like them as we associate their behaviour
and characteristics with the sort of fame and success we
would like for ourselves - vicarious reinforcement
therefore study them and follow them in
gossip magazines so we can find out more
about them and imitate them
SLT - role models
SLT would predict that we are more likely to follow
and imitate celebrities that we can identify with
for example the same age, gender, social background
younger people are more likely to to be
interested in celebrities because they have
more to learn by following them
Celebrity endorsement support
in support of SLT Escalis and Bettman (2008) - found
that celebrity endorsement enhanced a product when
the sonsumers aspired to be like the celebrity
they also found that consumers self-enhanced (felt more
superior) if they connected themselves to a favourable
celebrity and distanced themselevs from less favourable
these findings support the SLT idea the we imitate
celebrities in order to hopefully gain some success
De Becker et al (2007)
surveyed over 800 people and followed
this up with 103 in depth interviews
found the younger the person the more learned from the celebrity
supporting the idea of age differences in learning
they suggest that celebrities are viewed as higher-status members
of society and therefore are used for behaviour modelling
Cultural bias
there is cultural bias in a lot of the research into celebrity attraction
has most has been completed in Western cultures
in non-western collectivist cultures where the emphasis is on group co-operation
and respect for family and elders is high - the attraction to copy celebrities may be less