Star Struck: a mixed methods study on celebrity attachment and fan personality in the Philippines

Abstract

In a society where it is only common to see thousands of screaming fans, it is essential to investigate the phenomenon of celebrity figures having such a poignant blow even to those individuals who never really knew them. Despite the fandom being a universal phenomenon, fans have always been misrepresented in contemporary culture as "loners" who are "crazy" and "unstable" -an image of deviance. The present study examines the fandom in the context of personality in the local setting. 308 members of a selected official fan organization completed measures of celebrity attitude, personality, and life satisfaction, and 7 high scorers in the borderline-pathological domain of Celebrity Attitude Scale were interviewed. Consistent with previous studies, celebrity attachment was found to occur in three qualitative stages from low to high levels -entertainment-social, intense-personal, and borderline-pathological. Attachment in the entertainment social and intense-personal levels were associated with agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness, and with higher life satisfaction. Such findings suggest the importance of examining fan engagement not just as a phenomenon with a single aspect, but occurring in multiple stages. Further investigation of these stages shall occur within personality and life satisfaction variables, as they have implications for understanding one's engagement in the fandom.