Kim Kardashian: why we love her and the psychology of celebrity worship
Kim Kardashian is a symptom of a narcissistic social media culture that fosters the growth of brands
Two things are particularly striking about Kim Kardashian. The first is how she has managed to catch the attention of the global media. The second is that there are so many reasons why she shouldn't be famous. Indeed, it is tempting to suggest that in a logical world Kim Kardashian would be a peripheral citizen rather than a modern cultural icon. Is Kim just another symptom of postmodernist confusion and cultural decline, or is there a deeper psychological explanation for her fame?
Celebrities have been around since Alexander the Great, whose face became a public emblem reproduced in coins, tableware, and jewellery, even before his death. The difference is that the contemporary celebrity is not necessarily associated with any form of talent, achievement, or power. In other words, famous people have always been celebrated, but the last decade has seen an unprecedented rise of the empty celebrity cult, that is, our tendency to worship people just because they are famous, without any regard for what they are famous for.
As Chris Rojek, a professor of sociology at City University, notes in his book Celebrity, fame can be inherited, achieved, or ascribed. While the first two paths make sense, the third is by definition associated with arbitrary and questionable qualities.
It appears society has learned to embrace ascribed fame as a democratic and anti-elitist alternative to inherited or achieved fame. The average consumer can now crowdsource someone's fame via YouTube, Instagram or Twitter, which makes Prince George more irrelevant than Miley Cyrus, and top celebrities as unremarkable as their typical fan (except for their fame). Unsurprisingly, the Daily Mail is now the most read online newspaper in the world, attracting almost 200m visits per month; and in America, Glam Media sites attract more traffic than Wikipedia.
It would be hard to explain the power of the celebrity cult without reference to two factors: social media and the rise of narcissism levels. Social media enables users to broadcast their lives as if they were celebrities, creating an alternative reality that turns friends, acquaintances and strangers into fans and followers. Crucially, the same media platforms – eg, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram – are used by actual celebrities, reinforcing people's perceived emotional proximity and intimacy with the stars, who, in turn, share details of their personal lives with fans directly, just like their real friends do.
As a result, the social relationship between fans and celebrities feels like a genuine relationship, and in the minds and brains of Kardashian's fans they are as close to her as Kanye is. For the same reason, Beyoncé can have a stronger real time impact on her fans' emotions than on Jay Z's.
But as much as social media may intensify our narcissistic tendencies, it is simply a symptom of human narcissism, rather than its cause. Indeed, narcissism levels have been rising – at the rate of obesity – long before the arrival of social media. As scientifically demonstrated by Jean Twenge, we are now more self-obsessed, materialistic, entitled, fame-hungry, and egotistical than ever before.
Although this does usually translate into higher self views, these are more disconnected from reality and rarely translate into higher levels of self-esteem (ie, how happy we actually are with ourselves). Paradoxically, the more we try to love ourselves, the more reassurance we need from others about our worth, and the more depressed we end up when we fail to obtain it.
Ultimately, the only truly worrying thing about admiring narcissists is that it reflects the collective acceptance of narcissism as a desirable trait and value. Kardashian may be an extreme case study, but the underlying psychological reasons for her popularity are probably generic: people who worship celebrities are more narcissistic, and worshiping narcissistic celebrities is the quintessential manifestation of latent narcissism.
Kardashian is not the disease; she is just a symptom of it. And yes, there are also intellectual differences between those who like her and those who don't, but the same was true for Johan Strauss II, the DJ Tiesto of the 19th century.
