Research in the University of Leicester Department of Media and Communication examined interest in celebrities and gossip about them. It was carried out by Dr Charlotte De Backer who sought in her study to explain interest in celebrity culture. According to Dr De Backer: ‘Life is about learning and gaining experience, and in that process, we have a tendency to observe and mimic the actions of others. Ideally, we mimic what makes others successful and unsuccessful actions others have trialled and paid for. In reality, humans seem to have the tendency to mimic the overall behaviour pattern of the higher status of those more successful than themselves. This explains why celebrities act as role models for broad of behaviour they display – whether good or bad.’
Dr De Backer also examined another theory for interest in celebrity, known as the Parasocial Hypothesis. In this , the bonds are parasocial, or one-way, because the celebrity reveals private information, often involuntarily. The audience members respond emotionally to this information, although there is hardly ever any feedback on the private life of the audience going to the celebrity, nor do celebrities emotions towards their audience.
Her study of 800 respondents and over 100 interviews that younger participants showed greater interest in celebrity gossip, even if it was about celebrities who were much older than them and even when they did not know who the celebrities were. They showed the greatest interest in internationally-known celebrities because they considered those as more Her study also found that older people were interested in celebrity gossip not because they wanted to learn from celebrities, but because it helped them to form social networks with other people. ‘We found in the interviews that older people do not gossip about celebrities because they want to learn from them or feel by them, but because they use celebrity gossip to with real-life friends and acquaintances. As we live in scattered societies, celebrities can act as our mutual friends and acquaintances.’