{
  "id": 12127334,
  "title": "Celebrity admiration is linked to submission to authority, study finds",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/05/celebrity-admiration-is-linked-to-submission-to-authority-study-finds",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-10-05T10:00:32.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "PsyPost",
    "slug": "psypost",
    "url": "https://www.psypost.org/celebrity-admiration-is-linked-to-submission-to-authority-study-finds/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A recent study published in Psychological Reports has found a link between celebrity admiration and submission to authority. According to the research, people who strongly admire celebrities tend to be more deferential to authority figures and more attached to traditional norms. The findings indicate that strong emotional attachments to famous figures often correlate with a preference for established social order and conventional norms, even after accounting for a person's general political orientation.\n\nThe study involved 331 adult participants in the United States, who were recruited through an online crowdsourcing platform. The sample included an equal mix of liberals, moderates, and conservatives, although it was not nationally representative. Participants completed a questionnaire assessing their admiration for their favorite celebrities, measuring two levels of admiration - a lighter, entertainment-social level and a more intense, pathological level characterized by feelings of a special bond with the celebrity.\n\nThe researchers also measured the three dimensions of right-wing authoritarianism, including obedience and respect for authority, conservative attitudes, and traditionalism. It was found that both levels of celebrity admiration were linked to higher scores on all three dimensions of authoritarianism, with the strongest associations for conservatism and traditionalism, and a weaker association for authoritarian aggression. The intense form of admiration was linked to political conservatism, but modestly so.\n\nInterestingly, the study revealed that the connection between celebrity admiration and authoritarian attitudes held true even after controlling for factors such as age, gender, education, socioeconomic status, and general political orientation. This suggests that the link is robust and reliable, indicating that people who worship their favorite celebrities tend to prefer more dominant authorities. The lead researcher, Ho Huynh, explained that this finding may help explain why some politically conservative individuals in the United States are more attracted to celebrities despite the stereotype that celebrities hold liberal views.",
  "summary": "While celebrities often champion liberal causes, their biggest fans might lean another way. New research indicates that intense celebrity admiration is consistently linked to traditionalism and a desire to submit to dominant authorities.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}