The Psychology of Celebrity

I've been fascinated, and more than a little baffled, by the psychology of celebrity for years.  Why are people attracted to celebrities? 

After dinner with Pat Boone the other night several other restaurant patrons introduced themselves to Pat. And when they got home I'm sure they told their family and neighbors about their brush with fame. Strangely, they virtually ignored his wonderful wife Shirley.

Why do other people want to become celebrities? I worked with an author once who wanted his photo  in every advertisement to increase his celebrity.  He was thrilled whenever strangers recognized him in airports.  I couldn't imagine why.  How did he benefit if strangers whispered, "Look, there goes so and so..." as he passed their gate?

But recently, while studying the science of networks to understand their impact on marketing, I realized they may also explain the psychology of celebrity. 

Networks
I'm sure you've heard that each of us is no more than six degrees of separation from anyone else on the planet. It's called the small-world phenomenon. It turns out that, not only is this true--and not just for Kevin Bacon--but the actual number is something less than six.  Network structure and behavior make the small-world phenomenon possible.

Minimally, all networks contain nodes, links, and clusters.  In a social network, every person is a node and every relationship is a link.  Clusters are formed by groups of people who all know each other.  For years people assumed our social links followed a "normal distribution." A normal distribution looks like a bell curve where the vast majority of people have about the same number of contacts while a few have slightly more or slightly less. 

However, it turns out that human social connection actually follows a "power law distribution" where a tiny fraction of us are highly connected and the rest of us have relatively few social contacts.  It's like the distribution of wealth in the United States.  There is a handful of super rich with billions in assets, a modest middle class, and millions living paycheck to paycheck.  What's more, just as wealthy individuals tend to attract more wealth, connected individuals attract more new social contacts.  The rich get richer both monetarily and socially.  Remember, people introduced themselves to Pat Boone at the restaurant, but not to his wife.  Google rode this principle to search engine dominance.  It assumes hubs are more valuable and organizes search results by prioritizing sites with the most links. 

This makes highly connected nodes--or "hubs"--critically important to a network; more important than more pedestrian nodes.  Hubs do a network's heavy lifting.  The integrity of the network depends disproportionately on their contributions.  When a snow storm closes a hub like O'Hare airport in Chicago, for example, it can disrupt travel across the entire country.  Whereas a storm that closes The Gerald R. Ford airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan has few repercussions outside that node.  And this brings me back to celebrities.

Familiar Strangers
Celebrities are familiar strangers.  We recognize their faces.  We know their names.  We may even know a little about their careers, their love life and, depending on which magazines we read, how they look on bad hair days or after they've been arrested for DUI, but we don't really know them. It only feels like we do.  What we know with certainty, though, is that other people recognize them too and this makes celebrities seem highly connected.   They aren't, necessarily, but they look like a hub. And hubs, remember, are disproportionately important to a network. 

Could it be that we are born with an innate understanding of networks and the power law distributions they follow?  Do our minds work like Google, subconsciously assigning greater value to hubs and prioritizing social contacts with more connections ahead of others?  Do we do this even for those people who give the appearance of hubs?  Could this explain our attraction to celebrities and some people's desire to become stars themselves?  I think it's a question worth exploring further and I'd love to know your thoughts. 

Spread the fire. GS

Comments

[nathan kirk]

I've been searching the web for someone discussing this theory of celebrity:
Every human being has the fundamental fear that they are unloveable and unacceptable.
This is the driver of most behavior--those that are not biological/instinctual.
A celebrity by definition is fundamentally loved and accepted.
NOT that the celebrated person feels that or avoids the human condition of feeling unloveable.
Rather that the celebrity is invested by the rest of us with that quality.
In fact, the dissonance between the celebrity's personal wrestle with the human condition of feeling unloveable and the public's unconditional adulation requires every celebrity to make some introspective adjustment, and makes some celebrities just plain nuts.
Given that each of us desperately yearns to be loved and accepted--at all times, in all behaviors, for all our thoughts and desires, the existence of someone who has such quality is extremely attractive.
Such a condition of being unconditionally loved at all times is an almost god-like condition.

Proximity in any degree to celebrity then conveys to us in some degree that condition we crave.
The greater an individual's awareness of his unloveableness, the greater his worship of celebrity.
Those who do not give any attention to celebrities, have not conquered their basic lack--they only recognize that celebrities haven't conquered it either, and public adulation will not conquer it for themselves.

Stielstra, Oh Celebrated One, Author of International Renown, your response to my ignoble, obscure speculations would be most prized and revered! (Please detect irony)

[Mia Church]

Thankyou! I am go glad I came across this information. I have been searching for months for someone to discuss the dissonance in my life and brain. I am married to a celebrity and I find it wholely ridiculous, the adulation, the unstudied reverie, for what? a job, certain human behaviors that happen to be captured on electronic media?
I like the theory of the human condition being one of inherent insecurity and seeking affirmation and a "hub", I also believe that people are addictive in their search for an "I am real" feeling, whether that be through spirituality or being said Hello to by someone who's been on tv.
Quite possibly celebs seem more "real" to us and in turn if they see us then we must be real and worth more too. What do you think. I know that if we as a recognized couple are doing our own thing, eating with our family etc, and do not respond to shouts and papers in the face, people get very offended. I believe they feel so slighted that it scares them, invisible? that much closer to death, if this person sees me, smiles at me, engages me, I am very alive and worthwhile. I think it all goes back to survival. I'm sure before electronic media, the man about town, or the caveman known best was the most sought out to qualify our goodness and right to stay on the planet. If only in our minds. I am refreshed and gladdened when someone acts normal to my husband and I, I yearn for friends who can see beyond this psychological barrier. I yearn for depth. For intelligence and peace.
Thanks for the forum. Mia Church

[Greg Stielstra]

First let me apologize to both Nathan and Mia for taking so long to discover and respond to your comments. I don't always return to posts I wrote a while back and only discovered your comments today.

The Psychology of Celebrity is one of my favorite posts and so I was very pleased to see that at least two other people found the topic as interesting as I did.

I'll address both of your comments in two consecutive replies.

Nathan, I agree that people want to feel loved and the fear that they're not drives a great deal of behavior.

You raise an interesting possibility; that people associate "being known" with "being loved." If you get noticed then you are somebody. If you are ignored then you are a nobody.

If I understand your comment correctly, then you are also saying that when we meet a celebrity or have a brush with fame that we become known by association and thus become more of a somebody than a nobody by trading on a little of the celebrity's fame.

That idea fits with my original speculation concerning networks and makes sense to me.

Now, as for being a "celebrated author of international renown..." Well, not exactly. When people hear my name the most common response is, "How do you spell that?" :)

Spread the fire. GS

[Greg Stielstra]

Mia,

I have often thought that being a celebrity or a celebrity's spouse would be incredibly difficult. I speculated, and you confirmed, that the worst part would be trying to have real relationships. How could you know if your new friends were genuine and enjoyed you for who you really are?

I wonder whether the solution to improving encounters with fans involves breaking the spell. Could it be that the people who fail to "act normal" are engaging you and your husband based on the characters he's played? After all, they don't really know him and are forced to use the only connection they have (past characters)to work an introduction.

If that's true, then the conversation will remain superficial and fake as long as it revolves around the fictional character.

Rather than letting the conversation linger on films or TV shows, could you quickly shift it to some "real" fact about you--something that reveals your humanity? Since this information would be both new and unfamiliar to the fan, they may start to listen more closely. They might also let go of their stereotypes and assumptions and be forced to engage you as people.

It might be as simple as introducing them to the other people at the table. "I'd like you to meet my uncle Ernie from Topeka..."

If you try these things please stop by and leave comment telling us how it went. I'm very curious. Finally, I hope you find the intelligence and peace you yearn for.

Spread the fire. GS

[MC]

Hi Greg, Thanks for your insight. I've tried those tactics and to some degree they work, but for some reason it still is annoying to me, because if someone you just met started talking to you about say building a fence you may lose interest, but when the celebrity does it there is this facination that "hey I am talking to so and so about every day things" we are cool, we are friends etc. And then at every turn when we run into these people they cling. and my problem is the knowledge that I have that every person on this earth is equal and it almost hurts when I see others who worship someone because of media. Does this make sense to you? I appreciate my position in life, i want to be successful and be praised for my sincere contributions but not treated as a God, and I know that my spouse is uncomfortable with it as well. It may just be a symptom of our media driven society. I wanted to start a celeb. forum, of course you would have to be screened but don't you think that's a good idea to get this stuff off our chests!? Thank you for letting me vent. See you at the next premeire MC
Books I've discovered: In the shadow of fame-Sue Erickson Bloland
Celebrity and Power-P. David Marshall
Fame-The Pychology of Stardom- Andrew Evans and Dr. Glenn D. Wilson

[psikiyatri uzmanı]

The great article. Congratulations.