Original Articles and Reviews Celebrity Worship Among University Students in Malaysia A Methodological Contribution to the Celebrity Attitude Scale Viren Swami, 1,2 Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, 3 Khairul Mastor, 4 Fatin Hazwani Siran, 4 Mohammad Mohsein Mohammad Said, 4 Jas Jaafar, 5 Dhachayani Sinniah, 6 and Subash K. Pillai 7 1 Department of Psychology, University of Westminster, London, UK 2 Department of Psychology, HELP University College, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 3 Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK 4 Centre for General Studies, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia 5 Department of Anthropology and Sociology, Universiti Malaya, Malaysia 6 Department of Psychiatry, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia 7 Medical Centre, Universiti Malaya, Malaysia Abstract. The present study examined conceptual issues surrounding celebrity worship in a Malay-speaking population. In total, 512 Malay and 269 Chinese participants from Malaysia indicated who their favorite celebrity was and completed the Celebrity Attitude Scale (CAS) as well as a range of demographic items. Results showed that the majority of Malay and Chinese participants selected pop stars and movie stars as their favourite celebrities, mirroring findings in Western settings. In addition, exploratory factor analysis revealed a three-factor solution of the CAS that was consistent with previous studies conducted in the West. Structural equation modeling further revealed that participant’s age was negatively associated with celebrity worship and that self-rated attractiveness was positively associated with celebrity worship. Overall, the present results suggest that celebrity worship in Malaysia may be driven by market and media forces, and future research may well be guided by use of the CAS. Keywords: celebrity worship, idol selection, multiethnic, cross-cultural, Malaysia In the past several decades, there has been a growing interest in the sociological and psychological study of celebrity and stardom (Johansson, 2005). Beginning in the 1970s, a num- ber of authors examined the popular representation of celeb- rities (e.g., Alberoni, 1972; Dyer, 1979), culminating in Boorstin’s (1961, p. 57) description of a celebrity as ‘‘a per- son who is known for his well-knownness ... a human pseudo-event.’’ More recently, media and cultural analyses of celebrities have given way to an examination of contem- porary ‘‘celebrity culture’’ (e.g., Giles, 2000; Rojek, 2001; Turner, 2004; Turner, Bonner, & Marshall, 2000). Within this body of work, it is also possible to discern a focus on the effects of celebrity, particularly in terms of endorse- ments, on consumer behavior (e.g., Agrawal & Kamakura, 1995; Erdogan, 1999; Mathur, Mathur, & Rangan, 1997; Till & Shimp, 1998). Nor have psychologists been averse to studying celebrities themselves, with early work focusing on the negative effects of fame (e.g., Frommer, Juetteman-Lembke, Stratkoetter, & Tress, 1995; Schaller, 1997; see also Giles, 2000). More recently, psychologists have developed an interest in celebrity worship or appreciation, that is, a focus on the adoration of celebrities from the point of view of consumers. Although parasocial interactions, including the adoration of celebrities as role models, are viewed as a normal part of identity devel- opment (e.g., Giles & Maltby, 2004; Yue & Cheung, 2000a), such worshipping usually decreases in intensity with age (Ashe & McCutcheon, 2001; Giles, 2002; Raviv, Bar-Tal, Raviv, & Ben-Horin, 1996). In some circumstances, such adoration can evoke pathological responses, ranging from vicarious bereavement (e.g., Marsden, 1997) to erotomania (e.g., Vigano, 1996). In order to explain such celebrity worship, McCutcheon, Lange, and Houran (2002) proposed an ‘‘absorption- addiction’’ model of celebrity worship. According to these authors, psychological absorption with a celebrity is height- ened in some individuals who have a compromised iden- tity structure (e.g., introversion or a lack of meaningful European Psychologist 2011; Vol. 16(4):334–342 DOI: 10.1027/1016-9040/a000029 Ó 2010 Hogrefe Publishing