Posted by Queen of Urban Legend at 64-205-217-231.client.dsl.net on May 15, 2003 at 16:49:53:
In Reply to: Is it wrong of me? posted by snooganschick on May 15, 2003 at 16:40:17:
Do you think about your favourite celeb a lot? If so, you could be suffering from a new psychological condition - Celebrity Worship Syndrome (CWS).
One in three people are so obsessed with someone in the public eye that they could be a sufferer, say psychologists. And one in four is so taken with their idol that the obsession affects their daily life.
Psychologists at the University of Leicester, who used a celebrity worship scale to rate the problems, found that 36 per cent of people suffered from some form of CWS, or mad icon disease.
Dr John Maltby, whose findings are published this week in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, said: "Our findings suggest the possibility that many people do not engage in celebrity worship for mere entertainment. Rather, there appears to be a clear clinical component to attitudes and behaviours associated with celebrity worshipping."
The study of 700 people aged 18 to 60 found that there were three types of CWS. Those with a mild form of the condition were likely to be extroverts, with a lot of friends. Their worst symptom was a passion for talking about their chosen celebrity.
Dr Maltby said: "We found that 22 per cent of our sample had the low-level form of Celebrity Worship Syndrome, while 12 per cent showed signs of the moderate form, which meant they had an intense personal type relationship with their idol.
"The third group, the hardcore CWS sufferers, are solitary, impulsive, anti-social and troublesome, with insensitive traits. They feel they have a special bond with their celebrity, believe their celebrity knows them and are prepared to lie or even die for their hero."