The more one worship celebrities, the poorer their cognitive test performance
This meme shows how the New York Post portrays the study. However, the study did not determine the cause of why those who are into celebrity worship scored poor on the cognitive test.
Updated: Oath Keepers charged with sedition Link HERE
A couple of researchers found that celebrity worship is related to lower cognitive test performance. This is an indication that if a person was into celebrities, the chances are strong that this individual would score low on a cognitive test. The study did not determine the cause for this relationship. Perhaps you’ve seen this among your friends and family, regarding their tendency regarding popular culture and regarding topics that matter such as current events, history, etc.
From the New York Post:
New research has deemed people obsessed with Hollywood gossip and A-list celebs to be not that smart — which will surely come as a blow to those who love poring over the pages of tabloid magazines and tuning into reality TV.
The study, published in BMC Psychology late last year, asserts that “there is a direct association between celebrity worship and poorer performance on cognitive tests” measuring both literacy and numeracy.
The study asked 1,763 Hungarian adults to undertake a 30-word vocabulary test and a digit symbol substitution test, before completing a “Celebrity Attitude Scale” questionnaire to determine their levels of interest in famous people.
Participants had to answer “yes” or “no” to a series of statements on the Celebrity Attitude Scale, including: “I often feel compelled to learn the personal habits of my favorite celebrity” and “I am obsessed by details of my favorite celebrity’s life.”
Another yes-or-no statement read: “If I were lucky enough to meet my favorite celebrity, and he/she asked me to do something illegal as a favor I would probably do it.”
Researchers found that high scores on the Celebrity Attitude Scale correlated with lower performance on the two cognitive ability tests. Participants were also asked about their income, material wealth and levels of education in order to gain the most detailed picture possible.
However, the researchers were unable to determine whether celebrity obsessives perform poorly on cognitive tests because they used their brainpower thinking about A-listers, or whether they were fixated on Hollywood gossip because they were already less intelligent to begin with.
The New York Post has more in the article here. You could also read the study at this link.
There’s a good chance that the folks that Mark Dice interviews on the streets, who are unable to answer his questions, or who fall for his pranks, know something about celebrities that we don’t know.
Category: Society
Hack Stone is just grateful that America is full of celebrities with Twitter accounts who are intelligent enough to tell us who we should vote for.
I get static from folks who are upset that I don’t care about some entertainer or athlete who dies. If all that person did was do pretend in front of a camera / stage or play a game they are less in stature to me than some carpenter’s helper. The entertainers produce nothing or real worth IMO. Now if they were a Vet / first responder before hand or while an actor, ie Jimmy Stewart, Betty White or Steve Buscemi that is a different situation. I have respect for them.
Think “Dog” the Bounty Hunter.
’bout the only place I would follow any celeb would be a leggy Ms Thang (think Dana, Bridgett, Angie et al) into her dimly lit bedroom. IMHO most celebs AND the media are like an incurable social disease. I am also coginate of the fact that most of them have NO clue on important current events or history.
My heroes wear camo…walk softly…and operate things that go BOOM!
So, fans of the Kardashians ain’t all that…
This does not surprise me. I remember when People mag came out and thinking “Who would spend money on this?”
The only celebrity information I find of interest is when older and usually dead celebrities are reported to have actual accomplishments, such as Jimmy Stewart flying B-24s in combat in WWII, or Hedy Lamarr developing spread spectrum radio comms.
The researchers, failing to state which came first are actually doing the right thing, as causation is different from correlation. And honestly in this case is irrelevant. Who said, “Small minds discuss people. Average minds discuss events. Great minds discuss ideas.”
Can’t tell you how many times I’ve been mocked around the water cooler for not knowing squat about celebrities, being unable to name most, or what is going on with the latest ‘reality TV show’. The only ‘reality’ TV I watch is home repair/improvement, not for the manufactured drama but for the occasional craftsmanship or interesting design ideas. Anyone else remember “This Old House”?
My answer has always been, “I watch movies for escapism, for entertainment. Why would I care about their ‘real’ lives? That’s like wanting to know about the personal lives of my dentist or mechanic.”
Nowadays, I don’t want to know anything about a celebrity if I enjoyed a movie or TV show because chances are, their opinions will make them unwatchable to me. Liam Neeson immediately comes to mind.
To build on what you said… The focus on the paper was to research how those who score one way on a celebrity recognition test would also score on a cognitive test. Why they scored the way they did would be beyond the scope of their research.
They discuss their findings, as well as the research they did that lead to them wanting to do this research. Scientific papers follow a format that starts with discussing the issue that is to be researched, followed by a review of other scientific literature related to the research questions, the research questions, hypothesis, methodology, results, discussion, etc.
This research paper focused on how people performed on one test related to another kind of test. They ran a linear regression (using the if X then y linear concept folks learned in Algebra) and found a good correlation between low scores on cognitive test and high scores on celebrity recognition.
Their same data might be able to support another research paper asking if those who scored high on the cognitive test had scored low on the celebrity recognition test. If this is not addressed in their paper, they would suggest it in the discussions and limitations section.
Trying to see if those who scored low on the cognitive test are actually “dunces” or not would require another test focusing on that concept. This would also be a subject of a different research project and listed as a “future research” suggestion.
thebesig- always happy to connect another research geek who understands things like linear regression! I love how you laid this out and may ‘borrow’ it as an aid in teaching the concept of why being a discerning consumer of information matters. Beautifully done, BZ
I would like to offer a rebuttal to that statement, “Small minds discuss people…”.
Alec Baldwin shot two people.
From the links provided here at TAH’s sidebar: https://www.duffelblog.com/p/jack-ryan-accidentally-shoots-marko
Roh-dog – I give. I don’t get what you mean. Sincerely.
He’s doing a little leg pulling OAM. BAD -Dog! Baldwin played the part of Jack Ryan in the Motion Picture “The Hunt for Red October”. The Soviet Sub Commander wanted to defect, with the boat, and Ryan had to shoot the political officer.
Nope. Igor Loginov, a cook on Red October who was actually an undercover GRU intelligence officer. Loginov get’s discovered and fatally shoots Captain Lieutenant Kamarov and seriously wounds Ramius and Williams. Ryan tries to reason with the GRU agent, who refuses to listen and is eventually killed in a firefight in the submarine’s missile compartment. In retrospect, it was actually very cool of Alec Baldwin to let Sean Connery die of old age…
Thanks Hatchet…At least I got the pulling the leg part right. Been DECADES since I’ve read the book and NEVER watched the movie. Had ZERO phuques to give for anything that Baldwin ever performed in. Mainly remembered that Ryan shot one of the crew members. Don’t look at DB much since they went pay-per-view.
Know where we can find a pissed off JAL Wide Body Driver? Now THAT would be some Life imitating “art”.
‘Know where we can find a pissed off JAL Wide Body Driver?’
*shrug* eBay(marketplace of the effete-elite)..?
^^
THIS
‘Can’t tell you how many times I’ve been mocked around the water cooler for not knowing squat about celebrities, being unable to name most, or what is going on with the latest ‘reality TV show’. The only ‘reality’ TV I watch is home repair/improvement, not for the manufactured drama but for the occasional craftsmanship or interesting design ideas. Anyone else remember “This Old House”?’
Ditto OAM. I’ve been the target of a similar brand of water-cooler mockery but usually get the last laugh as most of these celebrity-centric folks are unable to cite quotes from even history’s more minor figures and/or events. Yep. Sure do fondly remember ‘This Old House’ and on the odd occasion when I really needed a good laugh, there was always good ‘ol Tim ‘The Tool Man’ Taylor with his show ‘Home Improvement’. Read somewhere that at one point in his life, Tim Allen had been arrested and imprisoned for drug trafficking. Following his release from prison in 1981, he returned to comedy. Tim Allen’s past debt-to-society is of no interest to me – his present-day ability to entertain and make me laugh, does. Pardon my disparagement but the above headline is a good indicator of just how skewed present-day society’s values have actually become… Back to the Pine Line for me, cheers to all here.
I’m in the same boat as you, OAM, regarding today’s so-called “celebrities.” A favorite story, and it is 100% absolutely true:
One day, I was shopping for some supplies at Staples, and as I was checking out, I noticed a poster of a rather attractive young lady near the exit. The poster advised me to “Enter and win a trip to Hollywood and to meet Katy Perry.”
I looked at the young lady checking me out of the store and said, “I know this is going to sound silly … but who is Katy Perry and why do I want to go to Hollywood to meet her?”
I had no idea. Still not too sure.
Celebrities … pfui!
Hollywood? Reminds me of the Tinsetown question: What does one find when they scratch the surface of Hollywood?
More surface…
Tim Allen has quite the collection of classic cars and some one off builds. He was friends with some big shot, but down to earth product manager at GM who built (by GM) Tim an impala SS with LT5 power.
No, I don’t care about his private life as a celebrity, but he does have a shared interest, and that’s interesting vehicles. 450 plus horsepower to the wheels makes for an interesting ride in my book.
I genuinely don’t GAFF about Celebrities other than watching some of them in movies or occasionally when I bother to watch TV and I enjoy seeing the look on some Celebrity junkie’s face when I ask them something like “Who is Kim Kardashian?”
Also applies to those who worship politicians / political celebrities.
Just in… 1st Federal charges for SEDITION.
FOUNDER of the OATH KEEPERS
+ 10 other Oath Keepers.
[“The seditious conspiracy indictment alleges that,
following the Nov. 3, 2020, presidential election,
Rhodes conspired with his co-defendants and others to oppose by force the execution of the laws governing the transfer of presidential power by Jan. 20, 2021,”
Justice Department wrote in a release.]
[FBI arrests Oath Keepers leader on Jan. 6 charges]
https://www.abc27.com/news/us-world/national/fbi-arrests-oath-keepers-leader-on-jan-6-charges/
National source… FOX NEWS.
[DOJ charges Oath Keepers founder,
10 others with seditious conspiracy
related to Jan. 6 riot]
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/doj-charges-oath-keepers-founder-10-others-seditious-conspiracy-jan-6-riot
Lolz. Hopefully this will be the Last Act by the Department of Injustice in spinning this narrative.
At this point it’s gotten VERY old.
Roh-Dog,
Actually, it’s NEW.
I’ve been reading squawks of
“no one has been charged with sedition”
for many months, right here at VG.
Not sure if other groups or individuals
will get charged like these Oath Keepers.
However, my gut says these Oath Keeper nutjobs
will flip on others, possibly many others,
to lessen their own felony convictions and sentences.
So, expect more.
I’m well aware its new news. Just listened to the lawer (sic) of Mr Rhodes Esq give a report of his opinion on the whys-and-hows.
“However, my gut says these Oath Keeper nutjobs
will flip on others, possibly many others,
to lessen their own felony convictions and sentences.”
You may be correct of this as I’m SURE the FBI didn’t fabricate evidence to support over-charging.
Time will tell but I’d put a G on Rhodes being NG/walking with no-jail misdemeanors. That man is anything but stupid.
Roh-Dog,
We’ll see.
This article drops out of view now,
only days old,
due to the many more recent articles,
and not sure how many will actually see our back and forth here.
So, this begs the debate of 2016 vs. 2020.
We all know that TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome)
was fueled not by any worship of Hillary Clinton,
but by sheer hate of Donald Trump (beating Hillary in 2016).
So, what fueled January 6, 2021?
Was it hate of Biden (beating Trump in 2020),
or was it worship of celebrity outgoing President Trump?
BYLINE added to this article.
Check in at zero dark thirty for the new post in the morning.
Thanks, Dave. 🙂