*A recent Hungarian study published in BMC Psychology suggests that an intense obsession with Hollywood gossip and celebrity culture may be linked to lower intelligence.
The research, based on a survey of 1,763 adults, found a connection between celebrity worship and poorer cognitive performance, The Independent reports. Participants completed cognitive tasks, such as a vocabulary test and a questionnaire measuring their interest in celebrities.
The study asked participants to respond with a simple “yes” or “no” to various statements in a “celebrity attitude scale” questionnaire. Per The Independent, these included: “I often feel compelled to learn the personal habits of my favorite celebrity”, “I am obsessed by details of my favorite celebrity’s life”, and “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.”
The researchers found that individuals with the highest scores on the celebrity attitude scale performed worse on the two cognitive ability tests.
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“Future studies should seek further support for our suggestion that the cognitive effort invested in maintaining the absorption in a favorite celebrity may interfere with the person’s performance in tasks that require attention and other cognitive skills,” the researchers told PsyPost.
“Although our research does not prove that developing a powerful obsession with one’s favorite celebrity causes one to score lower on cognitive tests, it suggests that it might be wise to carefully monitor feelings for [them].”
The researchers noted that they couldn’t determine whether celebrity obsession is a cause or a result of lower cognitive abilities.
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