The Journal of Psychology

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A Cognitive Profile of Individuals Who Tend to

Worship Celebrities

Lynn E. McCutcheon , Diane D. Ashe , James Houran & John Maltby

To cite this article: Lynn E. McCutcheon , Diane D. Ashe , James Houran & John Maltby (2003) A
Cognitive Profile of Individuals Who Tend to Worship Celebrities, The Journal of Psychology, 137:4,
309-322, DOI: 10.1080/00223980309600616

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980309600616

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 The Journal of Psychology, 2003. 137(4), 309-322

A Cognitive Profile of Individuals

Who Tend to Worship Celebrities
LYNN E. McCUTCHEON
Department of General Education
DeVry University
DIANE D. ASHE
Department of Social Sciences
Valencia Community College
JAMES HOURAN
Department of Psychiatry
Southern Illinois University School of Medicine
JOHN MALTBY
School of Psychology
University of Leicester, England

ABSTRACT. Celebrity worship is a form of parasocial interaction in which individuals

become obsessed with 1 or more celebrities, similar to an erotomanic type of delusional
disorder. Drawing on the cognitive factors implicated in erotomania, the authors hypoth-
esized that celebrity worshippers might be expected to exhibit verbal, visuospatial, and
cognitive deficits related to flexibility and associative learning. This general hypothesis
was tested in a sample of 102 participants who completed the Celebrity Attitude Scale (L.
E. McCutcheon, R. Lange, & J. Houran, 2002). the Entertainment-Social, Intense-Per-
sonal, and Borderline Pathological subscales, and 6 cognitive measures that included cre-
ativity (verbal), crystallized intelligence, critical thinking, spatial ability, and need for cog-
nition. The results were consistent with predictions and suggest that cognitive deficits only
help facilitate an individual’s susceptibility to engage in celebrity worship. The results are
discussed in terms of the multivariate absorption-addiction model of celebrity worship.
Key words: celebrity worship, cognitive deficits. delusions, erotomania, identity
development

THE ADORATION OF CELEBRITIES as idols or role models is a normal part

of identity development in childhood and adolescence (Greene & Adams-Price,
1990; Raviv, Bar-Tal, Raviv, & Ben-Horin, 1996; Yue & Cheung, 2000), but
beyond this form of parasocial interaction is an abnormal phenomenon whereby
individuals with presumed intact identities become virtually obsessed with one

309
31 0 The Journal of Psychology

or more celebrities-similar to an erotomanic type of delusional disorder. The

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric
Association, 1994) defines erotomania as the delusional belief that another per-
son is passionately in love with the individual. Typically, there is little or no con-
tact between the selected person and the erotomanic person; the selected person
is usually unattainable because of a higher social or financial status, or the per-
son is married. Celebrity worshippers do not necessarily have romantic feelings
toward their target person, but their conduct shows interesting parallels with ero-
tomanic-type behaviors.
For instance, in a recent issue of a teen fashion magazine, a 16-year old girl
told of her self-described obsession with a musician and her reaction to the news
of the musician’s engagement. According to Haynes and Rich (2002), the ado-
lescent was hospitalized because, in response to hearing this information, she
reportedly ran a hot bath and cut herself on her neck, arms, and legs. Thoughts
in her mind during this disturbing event included, “She’s going to change him if
he gets married . . . I’m not going to live with that” (p. 198). Even on recovery
from her injuries, there was evidence of obsessional ideations:

I don’t care who he dates, sleeps with, marries . . . I realized I wanted him to be
happy, and that that would make me happy . . . He’s the only person I connect with
(Haynes & Rich, 2002, p. 198).

McCutcheon, Lange, and Houran (2002) proposed an absorption-addiction

model to explain such cases of celebrity worship. According to this model, a
compromised identity or thin boundary structure in some individuals facilitates
psychological absorption with a celebrity in an attempt to establish an identity
and a sense of fulfillment. The dynamics of the motivational forces driving this
absorption might in turn take on an addictive component, leading to more
extreme (and perhaps delusional) behaviors to sustain the person’s satisfaction
with the parasocial relationship. The results of several studies (Maltby, Houran,
Lange, Ashe, & McCutcheon, 2002; Maltby, McCutcheon, Ashe, & Houran,
2001) based on the Celebrity Attitude Scale (McCutcheon et al., 2002) are con-
sistent with this proposed model and suggest that there are three increasingly
extreme sets of behavior associated with celebrity worship.
Initially, celebrity worship has entertainment-social value and comprises
attitudes and behaviors such as “My friends and I like to discuss what my favorite
celebrity has done,” and “Learning the life story of my favorite celebrity is a lot
of fun.” This stage reflects the social aspects of celebrity worship and is consis-
tent with Sever’s (1991) observation that fans are attracted to a favorite celebri-
ty because of that celebrity’s perceived ability to capture attention and entertain.

Address correspondence to James Houran, Department of Psychiatry, Southern Illinois

University School of Medicine, 901 West Jefferson, PO. Box 19669, Springfield, IL 62794-
9669; rlange3726@aol.com (e-mail).
 McCutcheon, Ashe, Houran, & Maltby 3I 1

Intermediate levels of celebrity worship are characterized by more intense-

personal feelings, defined by attitudes such as “I consider my favorite celebrity
to be my soul mate,” and “I have frequent thoughts about my celebrity, even
when I don’t want to.” This stage arguably reflects individuals’ intensive and
compulsive feelings about the celebrity, akin to the obsessional tendencies of
fans often referred to in the literature (Dietz et al., 1991; Giles, 2000).
The final and most extreme expression of celebrity worship is labeled bor-
derline pathological, as exemplified by attitudes such as “If someone gave me
several thousand dollars (pounds) to do with as I please, I would consider spend-
ing it on a personal possession (like a napkin or paper plate) once used by my
favorite celebrity,” and “If I were lucky enough to meet my favorite celebrity, and
he/she asked me to do something illegal as a favor I would probably do it.” This
expression is thought to reflect an individual’s social-pathological attitudes and
behaviors that are held as a result of worshiping a celebrity.
Sociological factors such as the mass media and communication might but-
tress all of these attitudes and behaviors (see Giles, 2000; Showalter, 1997), but
there are a number of psychological risk factors as well. In particular, celebrity
worshippers report lower psychological well-being than do nonworshippers
(Maltby, Houran, & McCutcheon, 2003; Maltby et al., 2001), the phenomenon
occurs more in adolescents or young adults than in older persons (Ashe &
McCutcheon, 2001; Giles, in press; Giles & Maltby, in press; Larson, 1995), and
celebrity worshippers are more likely than nonworshippers to value a “game-play-
ing” love style (McCutcheon, 2002). However, celebrity worship does not appear
to be related to authoritarianism (Maltby & McCutcheon, 2001) and is only very
weakly associated with shyness or loneliness (Ashe & McCutcheon, 2001).
Unfortunately, there is a paucity of information about specific cognitive vari-
ables related to celebrity worship. Jenkins (1992) applauded the fertile imagina-
tions of the many fans that are able to write scripts or suggest alternative plots to
various episodes of Star Trek. Therefore, the celebrity worshipper, as envisioned
by Jenkins, is imaginative rather than unintelligent or otherwise cognitively defi-
cient. However, there are conceptual and empirical reasons to adopt a different
perspective on celebrity worshippers.
Fujii, Ahmed, and Takeshita ( 1999) recently presented neuropsychological
data from two cases of erotomania and compared these to findings from previous
research on erotomania. Despite gender, personality, cultural, and age differences,
the two patients considered by F u j i et al. (1999) demonstrated similar neuropsy-
chological profiles. In addition, there appeared to be weaker left hemispheric
functioning, as demonstrated by weaker verbal reasoning versus stronger percep-
tual organizational skills. A similar pattern was found for memory, with weaker
verbal versus nonverbal recall. In both cases, verbal recall was much lower than
expected given their estimated intellectual functioning. The two patients also evi-
denced deficits on the Wisconsin Card Sort Test (a test of executive functioning)
and the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised Paired Associates Test.
3 12 The Journal of Psychology

These results along with scores on other neuropsychological tests suggest

deficits in working memory, cognitive flexibility, and the ability to form new ver-
bal associations. Fujii et al. (1999) noted both similarities and differences
between their findings and previous case studies of erotomania. In particular,
there was a trend among most case studies for patients to exhibit cognitive
deficits and frontal system dysfunction as determined by summary reports,
deficits on frontal tests such as Trails B of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence
Scale-Revised, or deficits in executive functions such as flexibility or dealing
with complexity. Contrary to the Fujii et al. findings, however, previous
researchers of erotomania reported the trend for patients to exhibit visuospatial
or visual memory deficits as noted by summary reports. Taken together, the
cumulative evidence implicates poor visual spatial skills, impaired frontal-sub-
cortical systems, and temporal lobe abnormalities (possibly more lateralized to
the left side) in erotomania.
Drawing on the Fujii et al. (1999) review, one might expect that celebrity
worshippers will likewise exhibit marked cognitive deficits related to flexibility
and associative learning that are mediated by frontal-subcortical systems as well
as deficits in verbal and visuospatial skills. In line with this suggestion, Gross-
berg (1992) noted that celebrity worshippers have been characterized as “igno-
rant,” “noncritical,” and “incapable” (p. 5 1 ). Although no empirical evidence was
offered to support these assertions, McCutcheon and Maltby (2002) recently
found that research participants in both England and the United States selected
the adjective “foolish” as more characteristic of celebrity worshippers than of
nonworshippers.
Of course, public perceptions are often inaccurate reflections of reality.
Slightly stronger evidence for a cognitive deficit view of celebrity worship is the
fact that Levy (1979) reported a significant negative correlation ( r = -.52)
between the amount of one’s education and scores on a measure of celebrity adu-
lation. On the basis of this previous research, we tested our hypothesis that scores
on the Celebrity Attitude Scale would be negatively correlated with facets of cog-
nitive ability related to critical thinking, general intelligence, associative learning
(creativity), and verbal and visuospatial skills.

Method

Participants

We tested a convenience sample of 102 participants between the ages of 17

and 41 (Mage = 2 1.2 years, SD = 4.5) consisting of 8 1 men and 2 1 women. All the
participants were 1st- or 2nd-year students at a technology-oriented, 4-year uni-
versity in central Florida, and their participation was voluntary. Most were major-
ing in business or telecommunications. None were majoring in the social sciences.
Ninety-one participants were single, 8 were married, and 3 were divorced.
 McCutcheon, Ashe, Houran, & Maltby 3 13

Measures

The Celebrity Attitude Scale measures the favorableness of attitudes toward

one’s favorite celebrity. We used the Maltby et al. (2002) 23-item revision of a
34-item scale originally developed by McCutcheon et al. (2002). This scale has
adequate reliability and validity (coefficients alpha are given in Table l), and pre-
vious studies have shown that total scores on this measure are correlated posi-
tively with favorableness of attitudes toward celebrities in general (McCutcheon
et al., 2002). The scale has been used in several recent studies (Ashe &
McCutcheon, 2001; Maltby et al., 2002; Maltby & McCutcheon, 2001;
McCutcheon eta].).
The response format for the Celebrity Attitude Scale is a 5-point scale rang-
ing from strongly agree ( 5 ) to strongly disagree (1). The scale measures three
aspects of celebrity worship that were identified through advanced dimensional-
ity tests (McCutcheon et al., 2002). These three subscales address Entertainment-
Social (10 items), Intense-Personal (9 items), and Borderline Pathological (4
items) forms of celebrity worship.
Form 1 of the Remote Associates Test has enjoyed more than 3 decades of
use as a measure of creativity (Mednick & Mednick, 1967). It consists of 30
items arranged in an open-ended format. Each item consists of three stimulus
words followed by a blank. The respondent must insert a word into the blank that
is remotely associated with each of the three stimulus words that precede it. One
point is scored for each correct answer; thus scores can range from 0 to 30. If we
define creativity as the process of “forming associative elements into new com-
binations which . . . are in some way useful” (Mednick & Mednick, p. 1), then
persons who are adept at linking remote associations should be regarded as more
creative than those who are not.
Tests of creativity have been sharply criticized (Aiken, 1997), but the
Remote Associates Test does have good odd-even and alternate-forms reliabili-
ty. In addition, high scorers on the Remote Associates Test tend to be indepen-
dent, nonconforming, and more intelligent than average (Mednick & Mednick,
1967) as would be expected of creative persons. We chose the Remote Associates
Test for the present study because it appears superficially different from the other
cognitive measures, and because it can be easily administered to groups.
The Multidimensional Aptitude Battery (Jackson, 1984) has received a
glowing review for its “psychometric excellence” from at least one expert (Gre-
gory, 1996, p. 226). It could be described as a group intelligence test that paral-
lels the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. We used the 40-item, 5-choice Infor-
mation subscale and the 26-item, 5-choice Arithmetic subscale. The former is
designed to give the examiner an estimate of the fund of general, crystallized
knowledge one has about a wide variety of topics (a sample item is “What is the
capital of Spain?’). The Arithmetic subscale tests one’s ability to solve a variety
of problems involving the use of several mathematical skills, including simple
3 14 The Journal of Psychology

algebra. An example is “If Tom had 4 times as much money as John, he would
have $24. How much money does John have?’ The items on both subscales
become progressively more difficult. One point was scored for each correct
answer; thus Information scores could range from 0 to 40, and Arithmetic scores
could range from 0 to 26. We chose those two subscales because they could be
administered in a short period of time and because they were designed to tap dif-
ferent kinds of cognitive skills.
We selected 20 of the 43 items from Version 2 of the Scottsdale Test of
Critical Thinking (Ricker, 2001). We selected a critical thinking measure
because these kinds of measures are designed to tap a respondent’s ability to
use fluid intelligence. Preliminary work has shown that the Scottsdale Test of
Critical Thinking has adequate reliability and validity (Ricker, personal com-
munication, September 9, 2001). Each item presents a scenario followed by
four choices. Items are designed to illustrate common errors in critical thinking,
such as the ad hominem fallacy, appeal to authority, generalization from small
sample size, and circular reasoning. A representative item is “John now tells
people to take X because a doctor once told him that X prevents asthma. Which
of the following criticisms is the BEST one to make regarding John’s reason-
ing?’ The correct answer is that his decision is based on the doctor’s authority.
We chose only 20 of the items for inclusion because of their length and diffi-
culty; each correct answer was worth one point.
The Squares Problem was selected because it is a nonverbal measure that taps
spatial ability, and it is easily administered. We do not know the origin of the prob-
lem, but we believe it has appeared in more than one book of puzzles. A large
square is presented; this square consists entirely of 16 small squares. Two smaller
squares are superimposed within so that their centers are to the immediate left and
immediate right of the intersection that lies at the exact center of the largest square.
The two smaller squares are equal in size and comprise four tiny squares each.
The respondent’s task is to correctly identify the total number of squares-
in this example, the answer would be 40 squares. For the purpose of the present
study, the score was the number recorded by the participant at the conclusion of
a 5-min interval. Some participants apparently solved part of the problem and
then gave an estimated answer. Some of these answers were higher than 40. We
adjusted these (so that our scoring system made sense) by evaluating each incor-
rect answer in relation to the correct one. Thus, an answer of 43 became 37, 42
became 38, and 41 became 39.
The Need for Cognition Scale (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982) is different from
our other measures because it assesses attitude rather than ability. We used the
18-item version (Cacioppo, Petty, & Kao, 1984) with responses ranging from
extremely uncharacteristic of me (1) to extremely characteristic of me (5). Half
the items, such as “Thinking is not my idea of fun,” are reverse scored. High
scorers tend to relish the opportunity to solve complicated puzzles and enjoy the
challenge posed by intellectual problems. The Need for Cognition Scale has
 McCutcheon, Ashe, Houran, & Maltby 3 I5

good reliability and validity and has been found to correlate moderately with
general intelligence (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982; Cacioppo et al., 1984).

Procedure

The Squares Problem and the Need for Cognition Scale were completed as
part of regular classroom activities in critical thinking classes taught by the first
author. We allotted exactly 5 min for the former and approximately 5 min for the
latter. Because of classroom absences, sample sizes for the Squares Problem and
the Need for Cognition Scale were 82 and 90, respectively.
All the participants were recruited from these classes with the inducement of
extra credit. They reported to a vacant classroom in eight groups ranging in size
from 7 to 20. They were given a booklet containing all the measures except for
the Squares Problem and the Need for Cognition Scale and were asked to com-
plete the Celebrity Attitude Scale and accompanying demographic questions.
When the participants had finished this part under no time restrictions, the
door was locked to avoid distractions. The instructions for each of the measures
were read prior to testing. We told the participants that they would have 7 min for
the Arithmetic and Information subscales and 15 min each for the Remote Asso-
ciates Test and the Scottsdale Test of Critical Thinking. They were prompted
when 10 s remained in each test period so that they could record a last answer.
We used eight different orders of presentation of the four ability measures to min-
imize the probability of a systematic order effect. We asked the participants not
to discuss any testing materials with anyone. They were debriefed a few weeks
later in class.

Results

Preliminaries

Men’s (M = 56.31, SD = 16.70) and women’s (M = 59.90, SD = 15.70)

scores on the Celebrity Attitude Scale were not significantly different, t( 100) =
29, ns; therefore, we collapsed gender categories in subsequent analyses. Means
and standard deviations for all measures are reported in Table 1.
Table 2 contains the matrix of zero-order correlations among test scores.
This table does not include entries for the three subscales of the Celebrity Atti-
tude Scale because these correlation coefficients closely paralleled those for the
total Celebrity Attitude Scale score. For example, total scores on the Celebrity
Attitude Scale were correlated (-.39) with Remote Associates Test scores. Cor-
relation coefficients between the Remote Associates Test and scores on the three
subscales of Entertainment-Social, Intense-Personal, and Borderline Pathologi-
cal were -.34, -.38, and -.32, respectively. In other studies (Maltby et al., 2001;
McCutcheon, 2002), some subscales of the Celebrity Attitude Scale were of
316 The Journal of Psychology

TABLE 1. Coefkients Alpha, Means, Standard Deviations, and Range of

Scores for the Research Measures in the Present Sample (N = 102)

Measure a M SD Range

Celebrity Attitude Scale-total score .89 57.05 16.47 27-101

Entertainment-Social .77 30.08 8.23 14-62
Intense-Personal .87 18.06 18.06 940
Borderline Pathological .58 8.91 8.9 I 4-19
Remote Associates Test (creativity) .70 4.92 3.35 0-17
Multidimensional Aptitude Battery
Information .8 1 22.80 5.86 9-35
Arithmetic .60 12.98 2.63 7-19
Scottsdale Test of Critical Thinking .61 8.94 3.35 3-17
Squares Problem (spatial ability) - 35.96 3.74 2340
Need for Cognition Scale .87a 60.83 11.51 29-86

"The original score sheets for our sample were accidentally discarded. Therefore, this coeffi-
cient represents the split-half reliability reported by the authors of the Need for Cognition
Scale (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982).

greater relevance than others, but a correlational analysis suggested that this find-
ing does not apply to our measures of cognitive abilities.
We were struck by the remarkable consistency revealed in Table 2. All six
cognitively related variables were correlated negatively with total scores on the
Celebrity Attitude Scale-and four were highly significant (p < .oO1 ) and
remained robust after we applied a Bonferroni correction for multiple analyses. In
other words, our results showed that individuals who were more strongly attract-
ed to their favorite celebrity (celebrity worshippers) were likely to score lower on
measures of general information, creativity, critical thinking, and spatial ability.
Furthermore, all of the cognitive measures were intercorrelated as expected, lend-
ing further support to the claims of validity made for each of these instruments.

Ancillary Multiple Regression Analyses

We performed a standard multiple regression to assess the predictability of

total scores on the Celebrity Attitude Scale from the six cognitive variables (i.e.,
the Remote Associates Test (creativity), the Information and Arithmetic sub-
scales of the Multidimensional Aptitude Battery, the Scottsdale Test of Critical
Thinking, the Squares Problem (spatial ability), and the Need for Cognition
Scale. In a standard multiple regression, all independent variables enter the
regression equation simultaneously, which is the recommended method when
there are insufficient theoretical grounds for controlling the order of entry of vari-
ables (Tabachnick & Fidell, 1996).
TABLE 2. Pearson Correlations Among the Research Measures (N = 102)

Scottsdale
Remote Test of Need for
Associates Critical Squares Cognition
Measure Test Information Arithmetic Thinking Problem Scale
~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~

Celebrity Attitude Scale-total score -.39** -.33** -.18 -.42** -.3 1 * -.2 I
Remote Associates Test - .60** .46** .52** .37** .18
Information - .58** .54** .27 .28*
Arithmetic - .47** .32* .29*
Scottsdale Test of Critical Thinking - .I6 .37**
Squares Problem - .06

* p < .01. **p < ,001, significant after Bonferroni adjustment for multiple analyses
3 18 The Journal of Psychology

The multiple correlation R for the regression was significantly different from
zero, R = .56, R2 = .31, F(6, 69) = 5.11, p < .001; that is, total scores on the
Celebrity Attitude Scale were significantly related to the set of independent vari-
ables. Altogether, scores on the six cognitive measures predicted 31% (or 25%
adjusted, adjusted R2 = .25) of the variability in the total scores on the Celebrity
Attitude Scale. In addition, given that the six cognitive measures were intercor-
related, it is important to inspect so-called tolerance statistics (Tabachnick &
Fidell, 1996) and ensure that intercorrelations among predictor variables do not
compromise the analyses. All tolerance statistics in the regression were well
above zero, ranging from .52 to $7; therefore multicollinearity of the predictor
variables was of no practical concern (Darlington, 1990).
Only the Remote Associates Test showed a suggestive trend to contribute
significantly to the prediction of scores on the Celebrity Attitude Scale, although
none of the six cognitive measures individually reached statistical significance at
the .05 level: the Remote Associates Test (creativity) (p = -.24, p = .078), Infor-
mation (p = -.17,p = .225),Arithmetic (p = .09, p = .445), the Scottsdale Test of
Critical Thinking (p = -.22, p = .116), the Squares Problem (spatial ability) (p
= -.15, p = .164), and the Need for Cognition Scale (p = -.04,p = .700).
We performed three additional standard multiple regression analyses to see
whether these statistical trends could be replicated for each of the three subscales
of the Celebrity Attitude Scale.

Predicting Entertainment-Social Celebrity Worship

Scores on the Entertainment-Social subscale of the Celebrity Attitude

Scale were significantly related to the six cognitive measures, R = .49, R2 = .24,
F(6, 6 9 ) = 3.59, p = .004. The independent variables predicted 24% (or 17%
adjusted, adjusted R2 = .17) of the variance in the scores. We observed only a
suggestive trend for the Squares Problem to contribute significantly to the pre-
diction of scores on this subscale, but again none of the six cognitive measures
individually reached statistical significance at the .05 level: the Remote Asso-
ciates Test (creativity) (p = -.19, p = .167), Information (p = -.14, p = .350),
Arithmetic (p = .12, p = .363), the Scottsdale Test of Critical Thinking (p =
-.18, p = .213), the Squares Problem (spatial ability) (p = -.22,p = .057), and
the Need for Cognition Scale (p = -.02, p = .883). All tolerance statistics in the
regression were well above zero, ranging from .55 to 3 7 , so again multi-
collinearity of the predictor variables was of no practical concern.

Predicting Intense-Personal Celebrity Worship

Scores on the Intense-Personal subscale of the Celebrity Attitude Scale

were significantly related to the six cognitive measures, R = .54, R2 = .30, F(6,
69) = 4.83, p < .001, and predicted 30% (or 23% adjusted, adjusted R2= .23) of
 McCutcheon, Ashe, Houran, & Maltby 319

the variance in the scores. We observed only a suggestive trend for scores on
the Scottsdale Test of Critical Thinking to contribute significantly to the pre-
diction of scores on this subscale, but again none of the six cognitive measures
individually reached statistical significance at the .05 level: the Remote Asso-
ciates Test (creativity) (p = -.19, p = .173), Information (p = -.21, p = .149),
Arithmetic (p = .01, p = .915), the Scottsdale Test of Critical Thinking (0 =
-.23, p = .092), the Squares Problem (spatial ability) (p = -.04, p = .689), and
the Need for Cognition Scale (p = -.03, p = .768). All tolerance statistics in the
regression were well above zero, ranging from .52 to .87, so multicollinearity
of the predictor variables was of no practical concern.

Predicting Borderline Pathological Celebrity Worship

Scores on the Borderline Pathological subscale of the Celebrity Attitude

Scale were significantly related to the six cognitive measures, R = .48, R2 = .23,
F(6,69) = 3 . 3 7 , ~= .006, and predicted 23% (or 16% adjusted, adjusted R2= .16)
of the variance in the scores. Only scores on the Remote Associates Test con-
tributed significantly to the prediction of scores on this subscale: the Remote
Associates Test (creativity) (p = -.34, s$ = .06, p = .021), Information (p = -.06,
p = .687), Arithmetic (p = .17, p = .209), the Scottsdale Test of Critical Thinking
(p = -.12, p = .385),the Squares Problem (spatial ability) (p = -.12, p = .287),
and the Need for Cognition Scale (p = -. 1 1, p = .343).
By way of explanation, s? refers to the squared semipartial correlation. This
coefficient represents the contribution of a given independent variable to R2 when
the contribution of other independent variables is removed from both the depen-
dent variable and the particular independent variable. Thus, a semipartial corre-
lation coefficient is a useful indicator of the unique contribution of the indepen-
dent variable to the total variance of the dependent variable (Tabachnick &
Fidell, 1996). All tolerance statistics in the regression were well above zero,
ranging from .55 to .87, so again multicollinearity of the predictor variables was
of no practical concern.

Discussion

Our findings might indicate simply that people with higher cognitive function-
ing are protected from becoming absorbed in fantasies about celebrities for various
reasons. These individuals may understand that the celebrity system is in essence
designed to sell a product; or these individuals may be more interested in ideas than
in people and their personalities. They may also feel they are as talented or bright as
the celebrities being promoted by the media and entertainment industry.
However, the resemblance between an erotomanic type of delusional disor-
der and the phenomenon of celebrity worship is bolstered by the present findings,
which conceptually replicate neuropsychological profiles of patients diagnosed
320 The Journal of Psychology

with erotomania (cf. Fujii et al., 1999). In particular, high scores on the Celebri-
ty Attitude Scale consistently showed negative correlations with our measures of
cognitive ability. Standard multiple regression analyses revealed that only the
cumulative effect of the cognitive measures predicted total scores on the Celebri-
ty Attitude Scale, and this trend was replicated in regression analyses that con-
sidered individually the three subscales of the Celebrity Attitude Scale (Enter-
tainment-Social, Intense-Personal, and Borderline Pathological).
The only exception to this trend was the small but significant contribution
of scores on the Remote Associates Test (creativity) in predicting scores on the
Borderline Pathological subscale. These findings implicate a broad range of cog-
nitive deficits in celebrity worship and specifically identify in borderline patho-
logical celebrity worshippers a deficit in the ability to form verbal remote asso-
ciations. This latter finding is consistent with the Fujii et al. (1999) report that
erotomanic patients exhibit deficits in working memory, cognitive flexibility,
and the ability to form new verbal associations.
The present results extend the absorption-addiction model of celebrity wor-
ship (McCutcheon et al., 2002) by elucidating several cognitive factors that coin-
cide with an individual’s tendency to become engrossed with the fantasy of
celebrity. However, the modest effect sizes in this study indicate that cognitive
deficits alone are insufficient to account for attitudes and behaviors that define
celebrity worship. Rather, such deficits may simply facilitate an individual’s sus-
ceptibility to engage in this behavior.
For example, we speculate that visuospatial-functioning deficits, in combi-
nation with isolative and ambivalent interpersonal relationships, also partly stem-
ming from cognitive deficits, may contribute to misinterpretations in parasocial
relationships. Deficits in cognitive flexibility-in addition to the proposed role of
an addictive element-may subsequently contribute to the maintenance of the
delusional belief. Fuji et al. (1999) proposed similar mechanisms to account for
erotomania. Therefore, it is important for future researchers to determine whether
the two phenomena are distinct clinical entities or merely different expressions
of a common neuropsychological state.
Additional study of these issues might reveal a set of diagnostic criteria for the
celebrity worshipper that can help guide the development of effective therapeutic
strategies for use in clinical contexts. It is unrealistic to expect that the field can fully
combat the phenomenon of celebrity worship, but we hope to understand the devel-
opment and progression of this phenomenon well enough to address extreme
episodes such as the kind exhibited by the female adolescent who was willing to
mutilate herself over her parasocial relationship with a popular musician.

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Original manuscript received May 13, 2002

Final revision accepted October 24, 2002