J Adult Dev (2011) 18:1–7 DOI 10.1007/s10804-010-9100-0
Fan Behavior and Lifespan Development Theory: Explaining Para-social and Social Attachment to Celebrities Gayle S. Stever
Published online: 5 October 2010 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010
Abstract The theories of Levinson (1986 Am Psychol 41(1):3–13) and Erikson (1959 Identity and the life cycle. WW Norton and Co, New York, 1968 Youth and crisis. WW Norton and Co, New York), Bandura’s (1986 Social foundations of thought and action: a social cognitive theory. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs) Social Cognitive Theory, and the ethological attachment theories of Bowlby (1969 Attachment and loss, Vol. 1, attachment. Hogarth, London), and Ainsworth (1978 Patterns of attachment: a psychological study of the strange situation. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale) are used in a discussion of the para-social and social relationships that fans have with celebrities. Fans’ attachments to celebrities play primary and secondary roles in the developmental stages of adulthood and transitions between those stages. Celebrities are role models for adults, and attachment develops in much the same way it develops in face-to-face relationships, e.g. through proximity and familiarity with the face, voice, and manner of the celebrity. Included are examples from the fan research of the author. One conclusion is that fan attachments are often part of the normal course of adult development in the areas of identity, intimacy, and generativity. Additionally, application of Levinson’s concept of stage transitions suggested that this might be a time when relationships with celebrities are more likely to begin. Keywords Para-social Celebrity Fans Erikson Levinson Attachment Bandura
G. S. Stever (&) Empire State College, State University of New York, 10 Campbell Park, Rochester, NY 14606, USA e-mail:
[email protected]
Theories of developmental psychology are a good fit when explaining fan behavior, and the purpose here is to explore these applications. I have spent the last 20 years doing participant observer ethnography in various fan communities, and the conclusions in this article are gleaned from field notes, interviews, and surveys as well as observations within each of the communities in my studies (Stever 1990, 1991a, b, 1994a, b, 1995, 2008, 2009a, b, 2011). While extensive research has been conducted in areas like social psychology (Giles 2000, 2002), sociology (Adams and Sardellio 2000; Ferris 2001), mass communication (Rubin and Step 2000; Rubin and McHugh 1987), popular culture (Sandvoss 2005; Harrington and Bielby 1995), and anthropology (Caughey 1984), only limited research has examined fans and their relationships with celebrities in the developmental literature. When psychologists study fan behavior, they tend to emphasize the pathological end of the spectrum of fan behavior with very little being said about average people who engage in parasocial and social attachments to celebrities (Dietz et al. 1991; Maltby et al. 2006). The emphasis in this article will be on how being a fan affects the course of development for the primarily healthy adult. Developmentalists have completed substantial work in the area of attachment, including study of infant/caregiver attachment (Ainsworth 1978; Bowlby 1969) and adult romantic attachment (Shaver et al. 1988). In the past 20 years, attachment theory has also begun to be applied to para-social attachments although most applications have been limited to adolescents (Adams-Price and Greene 1990; Giles and Maltby 2004). I have observed that developmental theories apply to fan behavior and also para-social interaction, defined as the one-way knowing of another person who does not know the fan in return (Horton and Wohl 1956). The purpose of this paper is to
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demonstrate the usefulness of developmental theory for understanding fan behavior based on those observations and experiences (Stever 1990, 1991a, b, 1994a, b, 1995, 2008, 2009a, b, 2011). Fan communities studied included those of Star Trek and specific Star Trek actors, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Lord of the Rings and specific actors from the movies, Madonna, George Michael, Prince, Janet Jackson, Paul McCartney, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Josh Groban. Theories included are the lifespan theories of Levinson (1986) and Erikson (1959, 1968), Bandura’s (1986) Social Cognitive Theory, and the ethological attachment theories of Bowlby (1969), and Ainsworth (1978).
Life Stage Theories Erikson (1959, 1968) offered his psychosocial theory wherein each stage of life is driven by a crisis. When all of the crises are resolved in concert, healthy ego identity is achieved. A recent addition to this theory suggested that all the stages of adulthood are involved in the development of identity and that intimacy, generativity, and integrity are subcategories of identity (Whitbourne and Connolly 1999). In the context of this theory, it would make sense that para-social and social attachment to celebrities would be explained differently depending on the stage of development of the participant. The most salient stages of lifespan development in the fan groups studied (Stever 2008) have been adolescence, young adulthood, and middle adulthood. For each of these stages, Erikson described a developmental crisis. For the adolescent, the crisis is identity versus diffusion; for the young adult, it is intimacy versus isolation; and for the middle adult, the crisis is generativity versus self-absorption. Levinson’s (1986) stage theory augments the idea of stages with stage transitions. At critical developmental junctures, a period of transition leads to the next stage. A transition is a chance to evaluate the past and think about the future. ‘‘What have I done with my life? What do I want to make of it? What new directions shall I choose?’’ (Levinson 1978, p. 84). An adolescent in the midst of identity crisis looks for models to emulate. Particularly for adolescents who don’t have models in the home, the media provide a wealth of celebrities who fit as role models for just about any identity desired. Whether the young person is into rebellion, social activism, or philanthropy, potential models abound (Adams-Price and Greene 1990; Erikson 1968; Giles and Maltby 2004). For the young adult struggling with the crisis of intimacy versus isolation, media and celebrities can play a role in a person’s struggle at this stage. Erikson (1959) said that if intimacy was not achieved, isolation was the result. In an
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era of transient family life where people move frequently, parents often divorce, and breakup is a way of life, young adults feel increasingly isolated. Many see attachment and a sense of intimacy with a celebrity to be preferable to the feelings of isolation they experience otherwise. As one 28-year-old woman explained, vicarious romance is better than no romance at all. The popularity of paperback romance novels is one kind of evidence that this is most likely true. Experiencing a romance that is not ‘‘real’’ is satisfying on some level. Levinson (1986) referred to the ‘‘Age 30 Transition,’’ where adults must decide the basis for their next life structure. If a real relationship has not been established, some fans decide to move ahead with the para-social relationship as a primary structure in his or her life. Levinson pointed out that this involves the person saying ‘‘This I will settle for,’’ (p. 6) as he or she begins to create the next step in the life journey. Indeed, the fans settle for something that is not real rather than have no romantic attachment at all. The fans I met and interviewed who are doing this were well aware of what they were doing. They chose to fall in love with their target celebrity. Unless they were delusional or ill, they knew it would not ever be real. Sometimes distance from the celebrity was a good thing for them, particularly in the case of participants who had been in a dysfunctional or damaging relationship. After her father had divorced her mother and abandoned their family, one 18-year-old young woman said: ‘‘I love Michael Jackson, and he can’t leave me or hurt me.’’ Another woman, who was the near-victim of date rape on two occasions, preferred the safety of a distant para-social relationship. For fans in middle age, a number of unique situations occur. Some fans have used fan activity as a way to recapture aspects of lost youth. A group of women gathering at someone’s home for a sleepover party where much giggling and watching of videos and looking at photos is the primary activity are engaging in social behavior that was familiar for many of them in their younger years. Girls in high school often got together to giggle together and talk about a boy from school that they all liked. To reconvene years later and gossip about a favorite celebrity was a way to feel young again, a way to bond with other women of similar tastes, and a way to connect on an emotional level. Usually, there was the sharing of some commonly enjoyed music, television program, or movie(s) in addition to the common fascination with the celebrity. I attended an event where there were 40 women crammed into one hotel room watching Lawrence after Arabia: a Dangerous Man and shrieking and sighing every time Alexander Siddig came onto the screen. Whether watching Orlando Bloom in Troy or Josh Groban in concert, the behavior is similar and in each case mentioned, a majority of the participants were in the 30 to 65 or middle-adulthood age range.
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Erikson (1959) suggested that if a crisis of a prior developmental stage was not resolved, it would be revisited in later stages. Erikson stated, ‘‘the first must persistently outweigh (although it will never do away completely with) the second’’ (p. 128). So with healthy ego identity, intimacy outweighs isolation, identity outweighs diffusion, or generativity outweighs self-absorption. Fans in middle age may be revisiting the intimacy crisis. But perhaps it is necessary to consider the more psychoanalytic or Freudian aspects of Erikson’s (1959) theory and suggest that what is at work here is regression as an ego defense mechanism. Is this kind of behavior a hedge against aging? A number of women who were interviewed from the Josh Groban fan base recounted that having romantic feelings for him makes them feel young again. Throughout this study (Stever 2008), people who had lost significant others or whose relationships were no longer positive said things such as, ‘‘I didn’t think I could feel this way about anyone again.’’ As already mentioned, Levinson’s (1986) theory added the important concept of transitions between life stages. I have observed that para-social attachments are often sought during critical life transitions. A common scenario would be a woman who has recently lost a spouse or significant other, who seeks solace in the social environment of a fan club and re-engages the world of relationships by engaging in one that is imaginary. One fan stated, ‘‘After I lost my husband, I didn’t think I could feel that way about someone ever again. My feelings for Josh made me realize that I could be attracted to other men and that put me back in touch with my feelings in general.’’ Another fan, whose fiance´e had passed away suddenly, told me that she never left the house except to go to work, until she was motivated to go to the concerts (given by her favorite celebrity). That became the motivation for rejoining the social world. Each of these fans as well as others in the studies was at a critical life transition that had been triggered by a significant loss (death, divorce etc.), and dealt with the loss by finding a para-social attachment. In some cases, these were women recovering from divorce. Some were recovering from the death of a spouse. Some simply never found the time to marry because of things like career or extended family. They joked that ‘‘I’m not dead yet’’ and they simply enjoyed being around someone who made them feel young again. None of the fans referred to here were delusional. They knew the relationship wasn’t ‘‘real.’’ It did not matter. They had found something that reconnected them to their feelings. And in these reported cases, the result appeared to be healthy, with increased happiness and functioning for the person. Erikson’s (1959) primary crisis of middle age is called generativity versus self-absorption. One either finds a way to give back to the next generation or one focuses on the
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self and selfish interests resulting in a lack of productivity wherein the person has not found a way to help build the future for younger generations. Middle-aged fans were the ones most likely to get involved in charity activities that were inspired by celebrities. Two good examples of this were Star Trek fans and the Josh Groban fans. In each case, people had found a way through their fan interest to help society and to make substantial contributions to the well being of others. Whether it was raising money for Doctors without Borders in partnership with Rene Auberjonois and Alexander Siddig, or sewing blankets for orphans in Africa as a part of Grobanites for Charity (affiliated with the Josh Groban Foundation), fans joined a fan club because they liked a celebrity, but what they found that made them stay was a way to make a difference for people in need.
Ethological Theory and Attachment A second theory is the ethological perspectives of Bowlby (1969), and Ainsworth (1978), who developed the theory of attachment that is part of our current understanding of infant-caregiver attachment. Related to these ideas is the theory of Shaver et al. (1988) concerning adult romantic attachment. Bowlby (1969) originally proposed that infants are born with a kind of biological programing, causing them to exhibit behaviors that are designed to enhance their survival. Building on those ideas, Ainsworth (1978) developed a theory of attachment that suggested that when humans feel strong attachments to each other, a proximity seeking system is engaged causing individuals to want to be with the attachment object no matter what the cost. Shaver et al. (1988) then proposed that these same attachment patterns persist into adulthood and shape our adult romantic attachments. Schore (2000) further suggested that attachment involved ‘‘psychobiological mechanisms by which these processes indelibly influence the development of the organism at later points of the lifecycle’’ (p. 24). One prominent aspect of ethological theory is literature on the newborn propensity to be attracted to the human face. Numerous research studies support the idea that human infants are born with a tendency to look longer at human faces than any other objects (Muir et al. 1994; Schore 2000). That gazing behavior is the first in a series of behaviors that works to attract a caregiver and elicit care from that caregiver. Attachment and its counterpart in the caregiver (called bonding) are strengthened as the human face becomes more and more familiar (Blehar et al. 1977; Schore 2000). Until about a century ago, human beings primarily saw the faces of those they knew in their immediate families and neighborhoods. It was rare to see a human face unless
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the person was known. This has radically changed in the past 100 years. In my 20 years of observation of intense attraction and attachment to celebrities, one of the commonalities in every fan base studied has been the fascination on the part of the fan with the face of the target celebrity. One of the most shared artifacts in fan groups is a photograph of the attachment object, with close-ups of the face being particularly valued. With the advent of the Internet, it has become very easy to exchange photographs of a celebrity, but even pre-Internet, fans in the late 1980s and early 1990s’ would exchange copies of photographs by mail. Once networked into the fan community of Michael Jackson, for example, I received dozens of photographs of Jackson from fans who had been met through correspondence or at fan events. Without particularly seeking these photographs out, they were still sent by numerous correspondents. As my study transitioned to fans of Star Trek beginning in 1991, Star Trek conventions were attended where one of the staples of fan merchandising was the celebrity photograph, most often a ‘‘headshot’’ or close-up of the face. One celebrity’s fan club sold photographs to raise money for charity, and there were many fans who had to have every one of the photos offered, no matter how many the fan already had. This same fascination with photos was found in other fan bases such as Lord of the Rings, Xena, Stargate, and Babylon 5. Most recently, my study of Internet fan web sites yielded a similar observation. Considering the web sites of Alexander Siddig, Nana Visitor, Sean Bean, Orlando Bloom, Jake Gyllenhaal, Sarah Brightman, RyanDan, Josh Groban, and a number of others, one of the common staples of fan club web sites is ‘‘picture threads’’ or discussion forums where the posting of pictures is the primary activity. A hypothesis to be tested with a more systematic study of larger numbers would be: Anyone who looks frequently enough at pictures of a media figure is likely to form an attachment to that figure. When surrounded by photographs of a particular media persona, fans exhibited feelings of familiarity, i.e. emotions like concern, care, and attraction. While sexual attraction was an element of this attraction, it is simplistic to attribute feelings of attachment only to romantic or sexual feelings for a celebrity. Indeed, while studying celebrities as diverse as Michael Jackson, George Michael, Josh Groban, and Orlando Bloom as well as females such as Janet Jackson, Madonna, Nana Visitor, and others, the sense of familiarity seemed to change fans’ perception of them. Further study is needed to test this hypothesis. Here is the important point: People are biologically predisposed to form attachments to familiar others (Bowlby 1969; Muir et al. 1994; Schore 2000). When the
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familiar other is a celebrity, it is difficult to make the distinction between someone known and someone known through media (Restak 1991). Restak’s hypothesis was that there is a part of the human brain that cannot really tell the difference between something experience in real life and something experienced through media. His discussion focused on experiences of violence through the media, but the concept could be extended to include social experiences with celebrities. So the attachment process is engaged with the same intensity as it would if the target were someone who was seen on a daily basis. Romantic relationships progress from initial attraction to a honeymoon phase of romantic infatuation (Fisher 2004). Then if they are destined to move to the next level, that honeymoon phase ends and a ‘‘real knowing’’ comes about. Numerous fans have expressed, either personally to me or on public discussion boards, their frustration when they reached the phase when what they were feeling made them want to have more from the celebrity, and they realized the social aspect of the relationship had gone as far as it was likely to ever go. That people should stop ‘‘obsessing’’ on celebrities and focus on the ‘‘real people’’ in their lives is a common and repeating theme in the psychological literature (e.g. Maltby et al. 2006; McCarley and Escoto 2003; McCutcheon et al. 2003). Fan relationships are perceived as obsessive and dysfunctional and are seen as poor substitutes for a real relationship with a person who is accessible. And yet the reality is that many people continue to allow themselves to ‘‘fall in love’’ with people they may never meet. They carry on love relationships at a distance and some people find that experience to be satisfying. (There are others who become ill and psychologically troubled, but this topic is beyond the scope of this paper). The judgment as to if this is helpful or unhealthy behavior is not as easy to make as it might seem on the surface. While I would agree that sometimes such behavior is unhealthy, I have seen many cases where the focus on a celebrity created a cushion between real relationships such that a pattern of dysfunctional attraction was broken. Indeed, one woman shared with me that after a succession of real dating relationships with men who turned out not to be compatible, she observed that her children were devastated each time she broke up with someone. She decided to focus on a vicarious attachment to her favorite celebrity for a time in order to stop this pattern of relationship break-ups that were so hard on her children. The vicarious relationship was a transition for her, and 6 years later, she resumed dating in real life. Speaking about this time of her life, she felt that this had been a good choice for her and for her family. How does one maintain a depth of feeling for such a person, one not seen on a regular basis and whose presence is only felt through their work or words? The ethological
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attachment theories of Bowlby (1969) and Ainsworth (1978) would suggest it is the repeated exposure to the human face that reinforces the attachment. In addition, the human voice serves as an additional reinforcer (DeCasper and Fifer 1980; Schore 2000). The Internet has made the spoken voice of celebrities available, particularly through the current YouTube phenomenon. A fan of someone like Josh Groban can go into YouTube, type in his name, and see almost every media interview he has done for the last 3–5 years. In addition, fan web sites specializing in preserving videos for other fans contain dozens of these archived media interviews, performances, and other forms of visual information on the target. The paparazzi stalk celebrities and offer a selection of moments that were intended to be private for the celebrity, now available on the Internet as well. There is no lack of representations of the human face, voice, and actions on the Internet, and this wealth of information feeds the attachment to celebrities who are depicted in this way. Fans are willing to spend hours and hours gazing at such media and vicariously experiencing a relationship with the celebrity. With each photograph and video, the attachment intensifies. Once the fan has developed an attachment for the celebrity, the proximity seeking system is engaged just as it would be in a relationship with a child or a romantic partner. Fans seek proximity in a number of ways. Looking at photographs as discussed above is one way. Being avid consumers of the creative work of the celebrity is another way. Some fans seek vicarious proximity through the collecting of memorabilia. In such a context, anything touched by, used by, or related to the celebrity can take on value. But most fans leave it at the desire for an autograph or perhaps having their photos taken with the celebrity. All of the above is within the boundaries of normal fan behavior and is rarely troublesome for the fan (Harrington and Bielby 1995; Kozinets 2001; Stever 1994b; Tulloch and Jenkins 1995). Some fans make it a quest to meet the celebrity in person, and once they have achieved that goal, the desire to meet him or her again and again can become all consuming if not kept in check. This potentially disturbing behavior can be explained by that powerful proximity seeking system that drives attachment in human beings. While it is hard for the non-fan to relate to it in this context, most people understand such a drive by relating it to the powerful pull one feels for proximity to one’s children or significant other. For some fans, the target celebrity takes on the role of vicarious life partner, and the quest to be near that person has the potential to take over a person’s life. In this context, being a fan can become a negative influence on development. So I am not in disagreement with Maltby and his colleagues (e.g. Maltby et al. 2006) with respect to
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what they call ‘‘celebrity worship’’ being a potential sign of poor mental health. I would simply maintain based on my own observations that this is not always the case.
Bandura and Reciprocal Determinism The final theory is Bandura’s (1986) Social Cognitive Theory. Bandura’s work began at the end of an era of behaviorism in the 1950’s where behavior was believed to be the product of a simple chain of stimulus, response, and reinforcement. Certainly some fan behavior could be explained this way. Fans received material on a favorite celebrity, and that material was enjoyable and thus reinforcing. The reinforcement caused them to seek out more material. Thus, fans make good customers, a main reason why media have learned to court them to a certain degree. However, Bandura (1986) pointed out that the one-way model of behaviorism was no longer adequate. His idea was that human behavior was part of a three-legged triangle made up of the person, his/her environment, and his/ her own behavior. It is an interaction among all three of these elements that best explains human behavior. For example, a fan who waits after a concert to meet the favorite celebrity and is lucky enough to have this happen, starts out feeling attraction, that attraction causes them to reach out with behaviors designed to attract the celebrity’s attention, even if only for a moment. The actual attention received is a powerful reinforcer that rewards the attraction and intensifies it. In addition, the celebrity, who is also a person within the social system, is changed by the interaction, and his or her behavior also evolves with respect to the relationship. Thus, it is not uncommon for the same fan to have a series of encounters wherein he or she is remembered and repeatedly rewarded for making the effort to seek out the celebrity. A celebrity who is highly interactive within a fan base develops an extensive network of fans that are known to that celebrity. Within such a social system, attachments become powerful and pervasive.
Integration of Theories This suggests a connection between Social Cognitive Theory and Attachment Theory. One theory talks about role models while the other talks about attachment objects, but in the context of fan–celebrity relationship, the role model becomes the attachment object, and the two theories together give a better explanation of the power of that relationship in the individual’s life than either theory does separately. Additionally, Erikson’s theory of life stages suggests that there are times during development when fans are more vulnerable to developing such attachments to
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models than in other stages. Why do some fans develop pervasive connections to celebrities? Repeated exposure to the faces of attractive models during a stage of life when one is looking to form connections to attractive others could be one explanation as to why the average person can become strongly attached to a favorite celebrity. Life events like the loss of a partner can also cause a person to seek the solace of attachment to someone who is distant and therefore ‘‘safe.’’ Levinson (1978) suggested that it is during life transitions that we seek to redefine who were are and find new structures for the life ahead. Are para-social and social attachments to celebrities more likely to occur during these transitions? Further research is needed to explore this question.
Conclusions The purpose of this paper has been to apply developmental theory to fan behavior, both para-social and social, in order to show that most fan interests evolve from the same developmental processes and tasks that drive other social behaviors. Bandura’s Social Cognitive theory, Attachment Theory, and Life Stage Theories all apply to fan behavior as they might to other kinds of behaviors. These applications suggest that fans are simply people who have chosen relationships with celebrities in order to meet psychosocial needs. This would appear to be a natural byproduct of a society where much of the information we process about the world comes to us through mass media, whether TV, movies, or the Internet. The issue involved is the degree to which para-social and social attachments to celebrities are a positive influence versus a negative influence in the life of the fan. The answer to that issue is likely to reflect a continuum more than a dichotomy. These relationships probably represent both negative and positive social influences, although it could be argued that most relationships of any kind are this way. The response to this issue will differ from individual to individual. Further study is needed to decipher exactly how these processes work and how they affect development throughout the lifespan. Another issue involves the extent to which para-social and social connections with celebrities are a primary versus a secondary part of the person’s social network (Levinson 1986). Both types of cases were encountered: In some cases, people had primary social relationships with family and friends in their real daily lives, and the celebrity relationship was a pleasurable but secondary connection. In other cases, people felt that the connection they had with the celebrity was one of the most important in their lives. Is this purely because of the lack of available
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real relationships or is this simply a choice some people make? Further study is needed to consider this question as well.
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