Hum Nat (2007) 18:334–354 DOI 10.1007/s12110-007-9023-z

Celebrities: From Teachers to Friends A Test of Two Hypotheses on the Adaptiveness of Celebrity Gossip Charlotte J. S. De Backer & Mark Nelissen & Patrick Vyncke & Johan Braeckman & Francis T. McAndrew

Published online: 2 October 2007 # Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2007

Abstract In this paper we present two compatible hypotheses to explain interest in celebrity gossip. The Learning Hypothesis explains interest in celebrity gossip as a by-product of an evolved mechanism useful for acquiring fitness-relevant survival information. The Parasocial Hypothesis sees celebrity gossip as a diversion of this mechanism, which leads individuals to misperceive celebrities as people who are part of their social network. Using two preliminary studies, we tested our predictions. In a survey with 838 respondents and in-depth interviews with 103 individuals, we investigated how interest in celebrity gossip was related to several dimensions of the participants’ social lives. In support of the Learning Hypothesis, age proved to be a strong predictor of interest in celebrities. In partial support of the Parasocial Hypothesis, media exposure, but not social isolation, was a strong predictor of interest in celebrities. The preliminary results support both theories, indicate that across our life span celebrities move from being teachers to being friends, and open up a list of future research opportunities. Keywords Evolutionary approaches . Celebrity gossip . Social learning . Parasocial relationships C. J. S. De Backer (*) Department of Media and Communication, Attenborough Tower, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK e-mail: [email protected], [email protected] M. Nelissen University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium P. Vyncke : J. Braeckman Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium F. T. McAndrew Knox College, Galesburg, USA

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Theories and Predictions Definitions of gossip will always be complex and controversial (Taylor 1994:34). A Definition of Gossip and Celebrity Gossip Foster (2004) and Wert and Salovey (2004) have recently argued that we still lack a clear definition of what gossip is and what it is not. We suggest breaking gossip down into sub-definitions, so that each sub-definition can be clear and unambiguous when used in research, because gossip can be divided into at least 16 sub-forms based on function (see De Backer 2005). The functional distinctions among different forms of gossip will be described in more detail below. Meanwhile, as Arno (1980) has argued, in the most general sense gossip can be regarded as any talk about the traits or behaviors of others. Dunbar (1997, 1998a,b, 2004) has even proposed that gossip can include talk about oneself. We accept Arno’s general definition but would probably not be comfortable with Dunbar’s argument for incorporating selfdisclosure as a form of gossip. We would also add two additional criteria that distinguish gossip from other forms of communication. First, we believe that gossip is information for which the sender has true/false knowledge. Senders of gossip either believe that they are transmitting truthful information or they know that they are intentionally spreading lies. Everything in between these extremes we would classify as rumor. In line with this thinking, others (Andersen 1995; Bergmann 1993; Foster 2004; Gelles 1989; Orr 1999; Smith et al. 1999) have already argued that the dissemination of gossip among trusted individuals differentiates gossip from rumors, which are often spread freely among interested parties without fear of punishment from possible offended parties. Gossip is also very context-dependent: “The meaning of gossip is to a high degree a property of the context in which it is situated” (Rosnow and Georgoudi 1985:59). The same information might be called gossip in one context, but not in another. Consider a society in which women wearing pants is unusual and considered inappropriate. In this context, “Have you noticed she was wearing pants?!” is gossip that controls and punishes the behavior of the gossipee. In most Western societies, where wearing pants is common and accepted, the same information would probably not be considered as gossip. Gossip is information that surprises people and triggers curiosity (Taylor 1994:42). Surprising information is new or unexpected (deviant), and we would restrict our definition of gossip to information that has these qualities. “New” does not necessarily mean that the gossiped-about event happened recently, but only that the information had been unknown by the receiver prior to hearing it. Information that has already been heard is less likely to surprise, but it can add to the credibility of the gossip if it is received again from a different source. “Deviant” information can reflect behavior that is different from either the way in which most people would act in a given situation (norm-deviance) or one’s regular trait/behavior pattern (self-deviance). The woman wearing pants when no other women wear pants is displaying norm-deviance. A woman who always wears skirts but suddenly wears pants would be exhibiting self-deviance. In this context, “Have you noticed that Jane wore pants today?” would qualify as gossip according to our definition, even in Western societies where many women wear pants.

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Thus, our general definition of gossip is: New and/or deviant information about the traits/behaviors of others where the sender has true/false knowledge about the gossip content. Strategy Learning Gossip and Reputation Gossip As suggested above, this definition can also be divided into smaller sub-definitions. For example, De Backer (2005) distinguishes between strategy learning gossip (SLG) and reputation gossip (RG). Behavioral information can sometimes be interesting no matter who it concerns, but the behavioral information may become even more interesting if it is linked to a specific gossipee. When the gossip contains information relevant to the reputation of an individual, the gossip is labeled RG (Bromley 1993). Replacing the gossipee with another gossipee may change the value of RG. For example “My brother is having an affair” is not the same as “My father is having an affair.” Sometimes, however, behavioral information can be valuable regardless of the identity of the gossipee, in which case it would be SLG gossip. “My brother got killed by a shark when he went swimming with dolphins” transmits the warning message that if you swim with dolphins, you risk getting killed by a shark. This fitness-relevant strategy information is preserved when we replace the gossipee with “my father.” The adaptive value of SLG lies in the fact that receivers can vicariously learn from the successes and failures of others. As others (e.g., Bandura 1977; Carroll 1999, 2002; Pinker 1995; Scalise Sugiyama 1996, 2001; Williams 1966) have already argued, relying solely on one’s own experiences to learn about adaptive problems the environment confronts us with can be extremely costly. By attending to information about the experiences of others, these costs can be minimized. Baumeister et al. (2004) have remarked that the value of SLG is independent of the exact identity of the gossipee. Of course, some identity criteria can be of value, such as the age and sex of the gossipee. Erikson (1959, 1982) has proposed that we are faced with different problems across our life span. The problems younger people face, such as ego development or finding love, are not the same as problems older individuals face, such as problems of care and despair. Thus, men and women or younger and older individuals sometimes face different adaptive problems, and SLG relevant for a 12-year-old girl is not necessarily relevant for a 60-year-old man as well. According to Baumeister et al. (2004), SLG that concerns the exchange of information about social norms helps individuals learn how to behave in an acceptable fashion within their social group. We agree with them but suggest differentiating between social, mating, and survival SLG, each of which was shaped by different selection pressures. Social SLG refers to the kind of gossip that teaches individuals about social norms. Mating SLG concerns fitness-relevant information that teaches receivers how to deal with problems of attracting and guarding mates and also includes gossip about parental skills; survival SLG transmits information about life/death strategies: what is a safe place to live, what is safe to eat, and so forth. Whereas SLG is concerned with general information about ways to conduct one’s life, RG focuses specifically on the reputations of gossipers and gossipees. The adaptive value of this kind of information rests on the fact that reputations are important. This is true not only in modern societies, but also in modern hunter-

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gatherer societies that most closely resemble the EEA. It has been shown that among hunter-gatherers, individuals can gain access to important resources, such as food and mates, by having a good reputation. Loss of their good reputations may impede their access to such resources as food and mates. (For more details, see Chagnon 1988; Gurven et al. 2000; Hawkes 1991, 1993; Hawkes et al. 2001; Hess and Hagen 2006; Marlowe 1999; Patton 2000; Smith and Bliege Bird 2000; Sosis 2000; Sugiyama and Chacon 2000). In a similar fashion, reputation gossip (RG) can be subdivided into more specific functions (see De Backer 2005 for a review). In general, survival RG solves problems of detecting the health status of specific others. Mating RG solves problems of finding mates and guarding them while having to deal with same-sex competitors, and additionally functions as a device to learn about the parental skills of others. Social or cooperation RG concerns information needed to detect cheaters, and it would help to solve problems related to social contracts and the management of long-term alliances (Cosmides 1989; Cosmides and Tooby 1992), Overall, RG benefits senders because they can show off their exclusive knowledge (Miller 2000), and they can manipulate the reputations of gossipees in such a way that their own reputations are enhanced (e.g., Barkow 1989, 1992; McAndrew and Milenkovic 2002; Paine 1967). Receivers of RG have the benefit of quickly learning about the reputations of individuals in their social environment. Another effect of the exchange of RG is that gossipers feel united because of the shared characteristic of knowing the person being gossiped about. Gossip establishes feelings of unity, as Gluckman (1963, 1968) has outlined in his functionalist approach to gossip. Gossip is embedded in our relationships and is used by individuals to better understand other network members and to build relationships (Goldsmith and Baxter 1996). And, since gossip is about people who are known to the gossipers, it creates a sphere of intimacy insofar as people who share gossip must come to trust each other (e.g., Ayim 1994; Bergmann 1993; Nevo and Nevo 1993). In our daily conversations, SLG and RG are usually intertwined. For example, “Have you heard, Garth almost drowned when he went swimming while being totally drunk!” is SLG for all (do not swim when drunk) and also is RG (Garth was not smart) for those who know Garth. Celebrity Gossip: An Eye Blink in Evolutionary Terms Today we are confronted with a new kind of gossip: celebrity gossip, which involves talk about the private lives of celebrities. Researchers such as Noon and Delbridge (1993) have excluded talk about celebrities from their definition of gossip: “speculation about the private lives of royalty, for example, would fall outside of our definition and could be considered ‘idle chatter’” (Noon and Delbridge 1993:25). Still, others (Ben-Ze’ev 1994; Bird 1992; Davis and McLeod 2003; Levin and Kimmel 1977; Schely-Newman 2004) see no reason to exclude gossip about celebrities from the discourse of gossip, especially if gossip can include talk about unknown others as well (see below). In addition, Post (1994) has stressed that it is necessary to distinguish between gossip as a noun and gossip as a verb. As a noun, celebrity gossip resembles interpersonal gossip more or less, but as an act, the phenomenon is quite different. Interpersonal gossip is often reliable information

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based on the intimate relation between the gossipers. Since this trust-based gossipers’ relationship is lacking for celebrity gossip, which is dispensed through media channels, this form of gossip is less reliable than interpersonal gossip. Massmediated celebrity gossip has a reliability problem and as an act leans more toward being rumor. There are other differences as well. For example, in classic interpersonal gossip, SLG can easily exist without RG being present in the same information. “Mister X was killed by a shark when swimming with dolphins,” for example, is pure behavioral information. Replacing Mister X with a celebrity, such as Paris Hilton, changes the information: it gets an extra RG value for those who know (or know of) Paris Hilton. Because most celebrities are by definition well known, extra reputation information is most often present in celebrity gossip. Celebrity gossip is either pure RG or a combination of SLG and RG, but hardly ever solely SLG. Although many studies have been done on celebrity worship in general (for an overview, see McCutcheon et al. 2002), only a few have focused on an explanation for why we crave gossip about celebrities, and these so far have relied exclusively on a proximate level of explanation (Bird 1992; Hermes 1995). To understand interest in celebrity gossip, we put forward two explanations. One focuses on the presence of SLG and sees celebrity gossip as an adaptive strategy, while the other focuses on the presence of RG and sees celebrity gossip as a recent by-product of interpersonal gossip, without a clear adaptive outcome.

The Adaptive Value of Gossip Our interest in celebrity gossip can be explained by two different, but complementary hypotheses: the learning hypothesis and the parasocial hypothesis. The Learning Hypothesis The learning hypothesis says that celebrity gossip occurs because it teaches us about fitness-relevant strategies. The learning hypothesis focuses on SLG, transmitted through the media, about celebrities as gossipees. Celebrity gossip is a fast and costeffective way to fill in our knowledge gaps about strategies important to succeed in daily life. The learning hypothesis treats celebrities as “teachers” in our massmediated societies. Although the mass media audience may have the feeling that they know these stars, actual encounters with these individuals are (virtually) nonexistent, and in this sense celebrities are strangers and become valuable as gossipees only because celebrities or other subjects of social-learning gossip carry fitness-relevant strategy information. Celebrities, however, have an advantage over complete strangers as subjects of SLG. Learning mechanisms are shaped by natural selection, and individuals are selective in their copying behavior (Richerson and Boyd 1992). According to Henrich and Gil-White (2001:176), we are most likely to copy higher-status others. It has been argued (Barkow 1976, 1989; Boyd and Richerson 1985; Henrich and Gil-White 2001; Henrich et al. 2001) that mimicking the behavior of higher-status people is an adaptive strategy that might lead to an increase in one’s own status.

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Still, since reputations are complex, it is often difficult to determine what exactly causes someone to be perceived as skilled and prestigious (Henrich and Gil-White 2001). Boyd and Richerson (1985) therefore argue that evolution most probably has shaped human psychology for a general copying bias rather than a specific copying bias. It is less costly to mimic the general behavioral pattern of an individual than to analyze precisely which behavioral combinations lead to success. Their theory explains why we often copy the overall behavior pattern of higher-status individuals, and this theory clarifies why we are more attuned to gossip about celebrities and more easily mimic their strategies than the strategies of complete strangers. Strategies with an unclear outcome will not be shared or mimicked when the gossipee is a low-status stranger. However, if the gossipee is a high-status celebrity, unclear-outcome strategies will be shared and mimicked because copying the general behavioral pattern of higher-status others just might increase the status of the gossipers. According to the learning hypothesis, some celebrity gossip (celebrity SLG) has the same adaptive value as some classical interpersonal SLG: we exploit the expertise of others because it is a cheap way to get information about successful and unsuccessful behavior strategies, and celebrity SLG has the extra benefit that even unclear-outcome strategy information is adaptive. If celebrity gossip is adaptive because of the experiences receivers can acquire almost for free, it can be expected that inexperienced receivers will show higher interest than more experienced receivers in celebrity gossip. In general, younger individuals are less experienced than older individuals, and therefore age can be used as a proxy to measure experience. Consequently, it can be expected that younger people, being less experienced than older people, will have higher interest in celebrity gossip. Prediction 1 Celebrity gossip benefits receivers because they can vicariously learn about successful and unsuccessful strategies others have tested. The adaptive value of celebrity gossip rests on the fact that experience information can be gained at very low costs. Therefore younger receivers, having less experience, have more benefits to learn from celebrity gossip and will show higher interest than older, more experienced receivers.

The Parasocial Hypothesis The parasocial hypothesis predicts additional interest in celebrity gossip on the part of individuals who are interested in reputation gossip about celebrities as well. RG enables us to learn about specific individuals’ reputations and to manipulate those reputations. At first glance it makes little sense to learn about individuals whom we (will) never encounter in real life. Likewise, manipulating the reputation of individuals with whom we do not interact and whom we will not encounter in the future seems a waste of energy. Celebrities are people with whom most of us do not interact, now or in the future. Still, stories such as “Jennifer Aniston files for divorce from Brad Pitt, ending hopes of a reconciliation,” “Brad and Angelina shoot nude scenes” and “After nearly six years together, Reese Witherspoon and hubby Ryan Phillippe appear to be spending less time together” appear on the cover of gossip magazines. It could be argued that

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these gossip stories transmit mating SLG that teaches the media audience how to deal with problems of break-ups. But most consumers are interested in these stories just because they are about Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt, or Angelina Jolie. People follow the lives of these celebrities, and some even get emotional when hearing about the break-up of celebrity couples. The reason for this is that some individuals may establish a kind of bond with celebrities. As Caughey (1984:33) says: “people characterize unmet media figures as if they were intimately involved with them, and in a sense they are.” Barkow (1989, 1992) added to this an ultimate explanation. He believes that celebrity gossip is a recent by-product of interpersonal gossip. Our modern minds are not adapted to recently emerged environments, such as the media environment. The modern, mass-mediated environment mismatches with the environment of evolutionary adaptedness (EEA), in which our minds were shaped by natural selection. Specifically, photographical/audiovisual stimuli are too recent a phenomenon for our Stone-Age minds to be adapted to. When we see an image of a media character (a celebrity), our brain processes this information as an encounter with a real person. If this happens regularly, as is the case with celebrities who are always in the news, our brain starts accumulating these encounters and makes us (falsely) believe that these people are part of our social networks: “We see them in our bedrooms, we hear their voices when we dine: If this hypothesis is correct, how are we not to perceive them as our kin, our friends, or even our rivals? As a result, we automatically seek information about their physical health, about changes in their relative standing, and above all about their sexual relationships” (Barkow 1992:629–630). One peculiar thing about the interactions of ordinary individuals with celebrities is that celebrities reveal their private lives to the audience (or have them revealed involuntarily), and this audience responds emotionally toward the celebrities. However, the audience does not share their private lives with celebrities, and celebrities do not show strong emotions toward their audience. Interactions in which reciprocity is lacking are called parasocial interactions (Horton and Wohl 1956; Rubin et al. 1985; Turner 2004). Celebrities are parasocial, or one-way, members of our social networks. Aniston, Pitt, and Jolie are one-way friends, one-way lovers, one-way rivals to the individuals who encounter these stars in the media on a regular basis and “believe” them to be part of their social network. This explains why some people want to learn about these specific celebrities, and why some want to manipulate their reputations using RG. As is the case for the exchange of RG about people who really are in our social network, the exchange of RG about celebrities creates feelings of unity, when celebrity gossip is used in an interpersonal setting (Benwell 2001; Riegel 1996). Individuals gossiping about celebrities feel connected to each other. In our modern societies, the interpersonal bases of our daily gossip conversations may be fading, and feelings of unity with our neighbors are disappearing. This happens because gossip across the fence, maintaining the social bonds with the people surrounding us, does not occur in big cities where one hardly ever meets one’s neighbors (Locke 1998a,b). In this context celebrity gossip can be of great value in creating feelings of unity among estranged individuals. Social isolation and individualization has become a common experience in many Western societies, leading to increased feelings of loneliness that influence one’s self-perception (see work of Putnam 2000 and Giddens 1991). As Caughey (1984) said, our imaginary (or, better, parasocial)

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relations with media figures facilitate real-life social contacts: media figures become shared interests to talk about with real social contacts. When individuals shift their lives in a new direction, celebrities console by giving friendship satisfaction (Kanazawa 2002). Celebrities are easy friends, and they provide calling cards to start gossip conversations with new acquaintances (Giddens 1991). Thus, the parasocial hypothesis regards celebrity gossip as a by-product of classical gossip, where the adaptive value of learning about and manipulating the reputations of those with whom we interact is replaced by the non-adaptive learning about and manipulation of the reputations of celebrities with whom interactions are nonexistent. Both phenomena result in feelings of unity, but only RG about real-life interaction partners can enhance our survival and reproductive fitness. From the parasocial hypothesis, we predict two things. First, we expect that celebrity gossip interest will be higher for those receivers who are more exposed to the media that elicit (pseudo) encounters with celebrities. Parasocial bonds can only be established if sufficient pseudo-encounters can be secured. Those individuals who do not watch television, do not read magazines or newspapers, and do not watch movies are less likely to regard celebrities as parasocial members of their social network than those who indulge heavily in media exposure. We believe that media exposure has a bidirectional rather than a causal relationship with interest in celebrity gossip. Interest in celebrity gossip will first be caused by media exposure, but over time both phenomena will influence each other. Prediction 2a Celebrity gossip appeals to an audience because of the parasocial interactions many individuals have with celebrities. The more individuals are exposed to media, the more they will encounter celebrities, establish parasocial bonds with them, and eventually display stronger interest in celebrity gossip. The parasocial hypothesis also predicts that people with very few real-life social network members seek compensation in celebrities. Celebrities become parasocial network members who replace real-life social network members. From this it can be assumed that individuals who recently moved to a new social environment and lack social contacts will be more interested in celebrity gossip than people who have been living in the same social environment for years. Celebrities, as parasocial network members, can provide friendship satisfaction. Moreover, celebrities can also serve as mutual acquaintances to gossip about with real-life social contacts, when we lack actual mutual acquaintances. Prediction 2b The shorter the time a respondent has been living at his/her current address, the less he/she will have strong real-life social bonds and the more chance this individual might seek compensation. Celebrities as parasocial network members can fill these social network niches, and therefore these individuals’ celebrity gossip interest will be stronger.

Study 1 To test both theories we presented 838 respondents a questionnaire about interest in celebrity gossip, their media use and social life.

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Methodology An anonymous questionnaire was distributed to 1,000 Flemish (Belgian) respondents with the help of 100 graduate students from Ghent University. We used a purposive sampling method to recruit participants. Each interviewer was responsible for distributing 10 questionnaires during the 2003 two-week Christmas holiday. They were asked to use quotas to come to an equal male/female and age distribution. All of our Belgian respondents volunteered to take part in this research, and they were not rewarded for participation. From the returned questionnaires, 838 were completed and included in this study. Of these, 397 were filled out by men and 441 by women. Ages ranged from 10 to 82 and did not differ between the sexes (using Independent Samples t-test for Equality of Means): Mage =34.9±13.6 years for women, Mage =34.2±15.9 years for men (t834 =−0.64, p=0.52). All respondents were presented with 31 stories about media characters. They were presented only written information. Names and ages of all characters were mentioned in each story. To maximize opportunities to alternate sex and age of the characters being gossiped about, we used two versions of the survey. Each version contained the same exact stories, but we changed the characters being gossiped about. Each survey contained 42 characters (some stories involved two characters), and in total we used 84 celebrity characters. These were all well-known Belgian and international celebrities of different age groups. Sexes were equally represented (42 male and 42 female), and the histogram in Fig. 1 shows that there is a slight overrepresentation of characters between 20 and 30 years of age, and characters between 50 and 65, and some overrepresentation of characters age 35–40. We tested for normality of this distribution and concluded that the ages of the characters we used followed a normal distribution (Kolmogorov–Smirnov p>0.1), ranging from age 18 to age 76, with an average of 35.81 (SD=10.64). All stories were collected from very recent gossip magazines or the Internet, and some of the stories were invented or changed a little to present “new” information. All stories contained SLG and RG information about one or two well-known celebrities. For all stories, we asked the respondents “How interested are you in this story?” and they answered using a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (“not at all”) to 7 (“very much”). With this question we measured the respondents’ interest in each separate celebrity gossip story. For each respondent we then averaged all of their 31 separate scores and recoded this in a new variable: “celebrity gossip interest.” This variable ranged from 1 (“having no celebrity gossip interest”) to 7 (“having very high celebrity gossip interest”). In the second part of the questionnaire we asked the respondents about their media use. To measure media exposure we made use of a list of variables that each indicate exposure to media in which news about celebrities is likely to be found. The variables we used were “reading gossip magazines,” “reading newspapers,” “watching television series,” “watching movies at home,” “watching movies at movie theaters,” and “watching the news.” The respondents had to indicate how often they engaged in each of these activities. Here we used 1–9 Likert scales, ranging from 1 (“never”) to 9 (“very often, more than once a day”). In the third and last series of questions we asked the respondents some personal questions, such as their sex and age. To gather data on their real-life social contacts,

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343 Mean = 35.8095 Std. Dev. = 10.64031 N = 84

25

Frequency

20

15

10

5

0 10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

age Fig. 1 Age distribution of characters used in media gossip stories

we asked them how many friends they had, how many people they were living with, and how satisfied they were with their friendships, using a 7-point Likert scale from 1 (“not at all”) to 7 (“very much”). Finally, we requested sociodemographic information. More specifically, we asked them where they grew up, where they were living at the time of the study, and most important for this study, we asked them “How long have you been living at your current address?” This last question provided information about any recent relocations. The time the respondents had been living at their current address ranged from 0.5 to 82 years (M=24.07±17.53). Results Using a linear regression, we assessed the relationship of age, media exposure, and relocation (the time respondents lived at their current address) with the respondents’ interest in celebrity gossip. The analysis revealed that age was significantly related to interest in celebrity gossip (βage =−0.47; p<0.001; see Table 1). Age had a negative impact on celebrity gossip interest. In Fig. 2, we see that the regression line has a negative slope, indicating that younger respondents show more interest in celebrity gossip. As the age of the respondents increases, interest in celebrity gossip declines. This result supports the learning hypothesis. Three of the individual media exposure variables show significant effects. Watching television (βtelevision-programs =0.19, p<0.001), reading gossip magazines (βgossip-magazines =0.14, p<0.01), and reading newspapers (βnewspapers =0.07, p<0.05) all are significant predictors of interest in celebrity gossip. This supports the predictions of the Parasocial Hypothesis that people who are most frequently

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Table 1 The effect of age, media exposure, and relocation on celebrity gossip interest

(Constant) Age of respondents Relocation Media exposure variables Gossip magazines Biographies Television series Movie at home Movie at theater Newspapers Television news Control variables Number of friends Real-life friendship satisfaction Number of people living with

Unstandardized coefficients

Standardized coefficients

t

p

B

SE

β

0.14 0.03 0.01

0.39 0 0

−0.47 0.07

5.53 −9.21 1.59

0 0 0.11

0.08 0.05 0.08 0.04 0 0.04 0.01

0.02 0.03 0.02 0.02 0.04 0.02 0.03

0.14 0.06 0.19 0.06 0 0.07 0.01

3.93 1.82 5.35 1.7 0.06 1.96 0.38

0 0.1 0 0.1 0.95 0.1 0.7

0.01 0.03 0.02

0.01 0.04 0.02

−0.02 −0.03 −0.03

−0.72 −0.96 −0.85

0.47 0.34 0.4

Dependent variable: celebrity gossip interest (scoring from 1 to 7).

exposed to media in which celebrities are presented or talked about will also have the strongest interest in celebrity gossip. However, the prediction of the parasocial hypothesis that people who have recently moved to a new location will be more interested in celebrity gossip was not supported, as the relocation variable was not a significant predictor of interest in celebrity gossip (βrelocation =0.07, p>0.1). Similarly, there was no significant relationship between interest in gossip and other 7

Interest in presented celebrity gossip

6

5

4

3

2

1 0

20

40

60

Age of respondents Fig. 2 The effect of age on interest in celebrity gossip

80

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social-life variables, such as the number of friends a person has, the number of people with whom one lives, or levels of satisfaction with real-life friendships. The results of these analyses are presented in Table 1. Discussion From questioning 838 Flemish (Belgian) respondents about their interest in celebrity gossip, their media use, their real-life social network, and their recent relocation pattern, we conclude that: & & & &

The use of media strongly influences respondents’ interest in celebrity gossip. Moving to a new social environment does not affect celebrity gossip interest. The number of social contacts and the level of satisfaction with those social contacts is not related to interest in celebrity gossip. Young people, who are less experienced, are significantly more interested in celebrity gossip than older, more experienced respondents.

The parasocial hypothesis was partially supported by our data. More exposure to media did in fact predict an interest in celebrity gossip, but the quantity and quality of one’s social life and the length of time one has been in residence at the current location do not. The results also support the learning hypothesis, which predicts that celebrity gossip is liked because it transmits fitness-relevant information, and this should be most relevant for less-experienced individuals, such as young adults. It could, however, be argued that youngsters are more interested in media gossip because the celebrities gossiped about fit more often into their age category and face similar life-stage problems. In our study, however, we controlled for the sex and age of the celebrities being gossiped about. The celebrities in the stories we presented to the respondents ranged from young stars, popular with teens (such as Britney Spears), to older stars, known more by older people (such as Bo Derek). For instance, the story we presented about Bo Derek was that she finally found love and happiness (after many struggles in her love life) with actor John Corbett. When we compared the interest in this story between respondents older than 45, most of whom knew of Bo Derek (87 of 111 respondents age 45 or older knew who she was), and that of our youngest respondents, very few of whom knew who Bo Derek was (only 2 of 22 respondents younger than 18 knew of her), both age groups scored low on average interest, but the interest of the youngest respondents slightly (though not significantly) outscored the interest of the older respondents (Mgroup-under-18 =1.96 vs Mgroup-over-45 =1.65 on a 1–7 Likert scale). To further investigate whether younger people are really more attracted to celebrity gossip because of the learning effect, we set up an additional study employing in-depth interviews about the motivations that drive people to consume celebrity gossip.

Study 2 In a second, qualitative in-depth study, we made use of semi-directed focus group interviews.

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Methodology Nine professional interviewers interviewed 103 participants who were distributed among 14 focus groups composed of people of similar ages. We recruited 30 adolescents (younger than 18), 32 young adults (age 18–30), 23 adults (age 30–45), 17 middle-aged adults (age 46–60), and 15 elderly people living in a home for the elderly (all more than 65 years old). For each age group we set up a focus group with only male participants, only female participants, and, if possible, an extra group of mixed-sex participants. The focus group size varied from 5 to 10 participants, and most groups reached an ideal average size of 6–8 participants (Morgan and Scannell 1998). All three adolescent focus groups were interviewed at the same high school. The elderly respondents were interviewed at two homes for the elderly. To recruit all other respondents we used snowball sampling, in combination with distributing ads in public places. We always insured that respondents interacted with an interviewer they did not know. To reduce bias and make the procedures as standardized as possible, all interviewers used a semi-structured questionnaire with a fixed list of topics to discuss. Results The results of our second in-depth study indicate that younger people indeed are the biggest consumers of celebrity gossip. When asked how often they read or talked about celebrities, the adolescents gave responses like “Daily!” or “Really, no kidding, daily!” When asked whom they gossiped about, adolescents mentioned names such as David Beckham, Orlando Bloom, Johnny Depp, Christina Aguilera, Anna Kournikova, Roberto Carlos, Angelina Jolie, Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, Brad Pitt, and so on. It was striking that none of them named any Belgian celebrities, especially since all respondents were Belgian. When asked about the reason for this, they replied that Belgian stars are “stupid,” they are “dull, foolish and cannot act.” They like American celebrities because these are known by larger audiences and are therefore considered more prestigious. When asked why they gossiped about celebrities, adolescents reported that they admire the glitter and glamor of international stars: “Yes, seriously, like on ‘Cribs’ [television program] they show their houses, with pool and four cars . . . [to which all other adolescents start screaming, “Yes, yes!”]. But yeah, you can only dream of ever having this don’t you?” (Male adolescent). Girls reported talking a lot about how celebrities dress, so they could copy their style: “You know what I like best? When they [gossip magazines] judge dressing styles, like “Oh my god, stars wear this and that” [all other girls giggle and agree] (Female adolescent). Overall the results from our adolescent interviewees indicate that they talk most about the behaviors of celebrities from which they can learn something. Celebrities are “teachers” from whom they learn how to dress, how to impress, from whom they learn what is right and what is wrong to do in a society. These answers indicate that for young adolescents the learning hypothesis best explains their celebrity gossip interest. Some responses of interviewed adolescents were also in line with the parasocial hypothesis. For instance, some adolescents explicitly admitted feeling jealous over several stars, and

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even regret when one gets married, but these reports were less frequent than reports of how they used celebrity gossip as a learning device to achieve prestige. In all older age groups, we noticed significantly less interest in celebrity gossip. As one of our female young-adult respondents commented: “Most of the times I do this with my sister who is 4 years younger than me. She still has that feeling of ‘wow, who is this!’” As individuals grow older and achieve more status, the glitterglamor effect of the prestigious celebrities seems to decline. Different from the adolescents, the young adults and the older adults talked about both international and Belgian celebrities. They did not look down on Belgian stars as the adolescents did, and their interest in celebrities who shared their nationality seemed to stem from a feeling of connectedness: “Yes, we have a lot more in common with them [Belgian celebrities]: same country, same language, . . . and maybe because we have these common features we feel more connected and have more interest in these people” (Female young adult). Both adults groups further reported that chances to meet Belgian celebrities in real life are higher, which makes them feel closer. These responses indicate that adults might be more interested in celebrity gossip because of parasocial bonds they have with celebrities, which is in line with the parasocial hypothesis. When we asked about their motivations to follow celebrity gossip and engage in interpersonal gossip about celebrities with real-life friends, the adults we interviewed reported that gossiping about celebrities relieves stress. Celebrity gossip entertains and relaxes, and young adults mostly consume celebrity gossip when they feel stressed. For example, they reported that they might be more prone to gossip about celebrities during the exam period, or when they feel bored. They also mentioned that celebrity gossip gave them food for talk with real-life friends: “It is an easy means to start a conversation with someone you know less, or just with someone you know, but you have nothing else to share with at that moment” (Female young adult). Overall, the results of our adult respondents seem to be more in line with the predictions of the parasocial hypothesis: parasocial bonds are established and lead to an interest in celebrity gossip. Similar support for the parasocial hypothesis can be found from the elderly people we interviewed. Although most did not like to admit that they love to indulge in celebrity gossip, one of the caretakers of the homes for the elderly we visited later commented that all their inhabitants love to gossip a lot about celebrities. When we asked the elderly interviewees which famous people they gossip about, they mentioned almost exclusively Belgian celebrities. Some foreign celebrities were mentioned as well, such as the U.S. president, but the elderly respondents’ greatest interest was reserved for Belgian and, more specifically, for Flemish people. Elderly respondents reported liking Flemish soap actors and Belgian sports people. Still, the most favorite celebrities of all elderly respondents are the Belgian royals: “Well yes . . . like Princess Mathilde and . . . Prince Philip . . . . When we see them on television . . . then we talk about that . . . .” (Elderly man). Overall, the results of our interviews with elderly respondents indicate that they follow the lives of specific celebrities. Their responses clearly are a sign that they establish parasocial bonds with celebrities to fill up the loss of real-life social contacts. As they report: “With whom and about whom should we talk? With our companions at lunch, we talk with them, but besides that . . . I tell you, if you are

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upstairs in your room, you are alone . . . .” (Elderly woman), and “It is not only here [home for the elderly], remember this! Whenever you go outside, you are all by yourself. If you are waiting for the bus for instance . . . . We live in a very egoistic society. Everyone for himself. I used to have many social contacts; with hundreds of people from everywhere . . . .” (Elderly man). Their real-life social contacts with and about whom they once gossiped get replaced by celebrities as parasocial mutual acquaintances. Celebrities console, give friendship satisfaction, and interpersonal gossip about those parasocial friends has the extra benefit of tightening up the few real-life social contacts they still have. Discussion Our in-depth interviews with 103 Flemish Belgians indicate that: & & &

Younger people consume the most celebrity gossip, especially about international stars. Adolescents seem to be attracted to it because they want to learn how to achieve prestige. Young adults have the least interest in celebrity gossip. Their interest is in both Belgian and international stars and stems more from a feeling of connectedness to the gossipees. Elderly people have an increased celebrity gossip interest compared with younger adults, but they care primarily about Belgian celebrities. Their celebrity (gossip) interest clearly stems from parasocial bonds they establish with media characters, to fill up their real-life social network niches.

These results confirm that the learning hypothesis offers the best explanation for why younger individuals are attracted to celebrity gossip, as our participants frequently and specifically mentioned the opportunity to know how to dress and act as motivations for paying attention to celebrity gossip. As people age, the learning function of celebrity gossip appears to become less important as the parasocial function of celebrity gossip appears to increase, especially among the elderly.

General Discussion A number of previous researchers have proposed that following the lives of celebrities can provide useful information for living one’s life as well as provide surrogate friendships and mutual acquaintances with others in highly mobile, individualistic societies (Bird 1992; Caughey 1984; Hermes 1995; Johnson 2004; Levin and Kimmel 1977; Locke 1998a,b). In line with this previous thinking, we proposed two explanations for why so many people like celebrity gossip: the learning hypothesis and the parasocial hypothesis. The first explains the interest of all in strategy learning gossip about celebrities, because we can vicariously learn to enhance our fitness from the trials and errors of others. This hypothesis predicts a higher interest in celebrity gossip from less-experienced individuals. The parasocial hypothesis anticipates additional interest in reputation gossip about celebrities from those who establish parasocial bonds with celebrities. This hypothesis predicts more interest in celebrities on the part of those with more media exposure and/or those

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who have a less-than-satisfying real-life social network. What we have added to earlier explanations for interest in celebrity gossip is the distinction that the learning function of gossip operates for everyone, whereas the parasocial benefits of celebrity gossip will only be relevant for some individuals. Additionally, our level of explanation is ultimate rather than proximate. The few researchers who have investigated celebrity gossip thus far have only focused on proximate explanations. We set up two studies to test the hypotheses we put forward. Our first (quantitative) study indicated that age is an important predictor of interest in celebrity gossip, with younger people having a stronger interest than older people. This was entirely consistent with the learning-hypothesis perspective that younger, less-experienced individuals would have more celebrity gossip interest than older respondents. In our second (qualitative) study, we confirmed that adolescent motivation is indeed an attempt to learn from international stars, and not so much an attempt to establish bonds with them. We also found that adults, especially elderly adults, have an interest in celebrity gossip that stems from parasocial bonds more than from an urge to learn behavior strategies. We suggest that future researchers investigate this age effect on motivations for celebrity gossip interest with more quantitative studies. It would also be useful to measure the interest in celebrity gossip expressed by older people at the time they were still teenagers, and to follow up on current teenagers’ celebrity gossip interest as they grow older. Our finding that young adults are mainly interested in internationally known celebrities, whereas older people show more interest in local celebrities, might be due to an age affect, but it might also be due to cultural changes. If the latter is true, the older generation may always have been more interested in local celebrities, and the younger generation could be expected to maintain an interest in international stars as they grow older. Cohort studies should investigate this further. Next, we found consistent positive effects of media exposure on a person’s tendency to be interested in celebrity gossip, but no effect of social isolation or satisfaction with the quality of one’s social life. Geographic relocation may not have been much of an issue for most of our respondents. Belgium is a small country, and this study involved only Flemish respondents, who at most may have relocated only to a neighboring town. It may be more beneficial to test this hypothesis in a country with a larger, more highly mobile population and a higher rate of immigration. It would also be interesting to see if relocation influences the interest in celebrity SLG as well. For example, this study focused on Western celebrities. The SLG information they transmit concerns problems of survival, mating, and social living that occur in Western societies. If an individual moves to a new cultural environment, such as from a Western culture to an Asian culture, his or her celebrity gossip interest might increase, stemming from feelings of loneliness because of a lack of real-life social contacts and from the drive to acquire fitnessrelevant strategy information of how to behave in this new ecological and cultural environment. To test the impact of real-life social satisfaction further, it might also be useful to use more quantitative measurements of one’s satisfaction with real-life friends. Questions about how satisfied one is in one’s relationships with family and friends are often vague, and they might be replaced with more specific questions, such as “How many times did you share a meal with a friend/family member/other person in the past week?” “How many times did you visit the home of a friend/

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family member/other person in the past week?” and “How many times did a friend/ family member/other person visit you in the past week?” Such questions are usually easier to respond to, and they might provide a better indication of the quality of social life. Finally, in this study we did not focus on other factors that would be interesting to incorporate in future studies. For instance, we did not focus on sex differences in our research, but sex differences in celebrity gossip interest have been studied before. Some (Bird 1992; Hermes 1995; Hess and Hagen 2006) have argued that women have a greater interest in celebrities, while others have argued (Levin and Arluke 1985; McCutcheon et al. 2002) that men’s celebrity gossip interest exceeds that of women. Bird (1992) and Hermes (1995) interviewed readers of gossip magazines designed for women and found that men’s main motivation was to learn from celebrities and that women are more interested in establishing parasocial bonds with celebrities. However, the surface of this potentially fruitful line of research has barely been scratched. Also, as has been suggested by Kanazawa (2004), the interest in celebrity gossip as a function of establishing one-way social bonds with these individuals, as explained by our parasocial hypothesis, might be dependent on general intelligence. It would be interesting for future research to test whether general intelligence correlates with celebrity gossip interest, and whether it correlates most strongly for those individuals whose motivation to consume celebrity gossip is driven by a desire to create one-way relationships with celebrities. It might be interesting to investigate certain personality traits further in the context of celebrity-gossip-interest research. Studies of the spread of interpersonal gossip have shown that anxiety plays an important role in the sharing of gossip. Anthony’s (1973) study showed that more-anxious people report increased interest in gossip, and Rosnow and Fine (1976) have added to this that anxious people are more eager to spread gossip around as well. If celebrity gossip serves the same functions as interpersonal gossip, similar effects might be expected. Also other personality factors, such as extroversion versus introversion, can be expected to influence celebrity gossip interest. Overall it would be useful for future research to link celebrity gossip interest to some personality measurement scales such as the Big Five, or scales that measure anxiety levels. As a last suggestion for future studies, we would like to mention that the parasocial hypothesis predicts changes in celebrity gossip interest for women across their menstrual cycle. If it is true that individuals are attracted to celebrity gossip because they regard these people as one-way members of their social network, it can be assumed that both men’s and women’s celebrity gossip interest is driven by their desires for potential mates. Menstrual cycle studies have shown that women’s sexual desire increases when they reach peak fertility during their cycle (Regan 1996) and that women engage more in social activities during their high fertility period (Grammer et al. 1997). In line with these studies, women can be expected to show an increased interest in celebrity gossip, as a means of meeting (one-way) potential mates during the most fertile point in their menstrual cycles. In general we conclude that this field of research has been highly neglected, and for those whose interests lie primarily with celebrity gossip, the research opportunities are just beginning.

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Acknowledgements We would like to thank Leda Cosmides, John Tooby and all members of the Center for Evolutionary Psychology at UCSB for their support and comments on the ideas presented in this paper. We also wish to thank J. Barkow, N. Hess, and G. Miller for the very useful comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript. This research was funded by a doctoral grant from the Fund for Scientific Research Flanders–Belgium and a postdoctoral fellowship awarded by the Belgian American Educational Foundation. We wish to thank them for their support.

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Charlotte J. S. De Backer is affiliated with the Department Media and Communications, University of Leicester, United Kingdom. Her research interests are in celebrity culture, media gosssip, and evolutionary approaches to media studies.

Mark Nelissen is affiliated with the Department of Behavioral Biology at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. His research interests are in social structures in primates and communication of emotion in humans.

Patrick Vyncke is affiliated with the Department of Communication Studies at Ghent University, Belgium. His research interests are in semiotics, communication management, and media in evolutionary perspective.

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Johan Braeckman is affiliated with the Department of Philosophy at Ghent University, Belgium. His research interests are in philosophy of biology and bioethics.

Francis T. McAndrew is the Cornelia H. Dudley Professor of Psychology at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. He is a social psychologist with research interests in evolutionary psychology and environmental psychology.