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Jake Gyllenhaal
We know that celebrities are important because they are ... celebrities. But what makes them so? And what psychological functions does following them, and finding out about them, have? This question has become a matter of psychological research. In a recent article (2011), Gayle Stever of SUNY Rochester, has examined the roots of celebrity-following and fandom.
Stever argues that the idea of feeling close to celebrities derives from attachment of the kind discovered by John Bowlby. Just as we yearn to feel close to a caregiver, usually a parent, and later to a lover, we can yearn to feel close to stars such as Janet Jackson or Jake Gyllenhaal (two of the several stars whose fan bases she has studied.) She goes on to show how the idea of attachment can lead us toward an understanding of role models and of why they are important.
A similar question arises in attraction to characters in novels and movies. For this we usually use the term identification. In identification we want to like and to be like a certain character. A celebrity of yesteryear, Cary Grant, put this very well when he said: "Everybody wants to be Cary Grant ... Even I want to be Cary Grant."
Cary Grant was born in Bristol, England, and his real name was Archibald Leach. He was pointing out that he was merely someone who played Cary Grant. In fact, film stars are fictional in that they have to act not only characters in movies but the part of celebrity, an idealized, abstract kind of being.
In recent analyses of what goes on when we read a novel or go to the movies, the emphasis is not just on liking a character, but of simultaneously being oneself and coming to be, or be with, that character. It's a double sense of being. In it we can, perhaps, move towards our ideal of selfhood. Is this why celebrities are so potent?
Stever, G. S. (2011). Fan behavior and lifespan development theory: Explaining para-social and social attachment to celebrities. Journal of Adult Development, 18, 1-7.
Image: Jake Gyllenhaal, Wikipedia
