Don’t shoot the messenger, but according to a recent study, people who tend to obsess over, and worship celebrities also tend to perform worse, in regard to cognition. For those of you stanning out there for all your favorite actors, actresses, and more-you might want to keep reading, for the sake of your brain.
The study was published in BMC Psychology, and the authors did not just skim the surface. During an interview with Psypost, study authors Lynn McCutcheon, Agnes Zsila, and Zsolr Demetrovics stated, “Interest in the topic of celebrity worshipers spans almost two decades. From several studies over that period, research showed a weak to moderate tendency for those who showed the strongest admiration for their favorite celebrity to have lower cognitive skills, using a variety of cognitive measures.”
To begin with, the researchers had 1,763 Hungarian adults complete an online survey, including a series of intelligence tests designed to assess two different aspects of cognition. In the first of the tests, their goal was to measure ‘crystallized intelligence.’ They observed this by testing their vocabulary while using a digit symbol test to measure their ‘fluid intelligence.’
Additionally, they were asked to complete a ‘Celebrity Attitude Scale’ questionnaire, that was used to understand how much they obsessed over celebrities. The levels of obsession included those who just discussed them with friends (entertainment-social), those who compulsively thought about celebrities (intense-personal), and those who stated they would do something illegal for their favorite celebrity (borderline-pathological.)
On top of that, they measured their material wealth and self-esteem. Their conclusions from all of this showed that those who were more obsessed with celebrities also scored reduced scores on both their crystallized and fluid intelligence tests.
There were a few different theories as to why this was, including the fact that people with higher intelligence levels were less likely to focus too much on a ‘one-sided’ emotional bond, as well as the theory that those of higher intelligence were less likely to fall for the marketing strategies that make a famous person famous.
What do you think?