Idols and Ideologies: Examining Associations Between Celebrity Admiration and Right-Wing Authoritarianism

Previous research reported that higher celebrity admiration is associated with increased political conservatism. In the current study, we examined whether celebrity admiration could statistically predict right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), above and beyond demographic factors (gender, age, socioeconomic status, education) and political orientation. Participants ( N = 331; 53.8% female; average age = 39.93, SD age = 12.83) living in the United States completed an online survey with measures for celebrity admiration, RWA, and demographic information. Bivariate correlations showed that celebrity admiration was positively related to all three dimensions of RWA, although the strengths of those associations tended to be stronger with Conservatism and Traditionalism than Authoritarianism. Hierarchical multiple regression demonstrated that celebrity admiration consistently predicted additional variance in RWA-Conservatism and Traditionalism, but not Authoritarianism, above and beyond demographic factors and political orientation. These findings suggest that celebrity admiration could relate to attitudes with critical personal and societal implications.