Word: self
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...idea. And from a scientific point of view, it was intriguing to Gabriel: Could science actually measure the psychological benefit of celebrity worship? Gabriel enlisted a group of 348 college students, one-fifth of whom admitted to having a celebrity crush. She gave all the students an 11-item self-esteem questionnaire; their responses allowed researchers to rank the participants according to their baseline level of self-esteem. Next, she instructed the students to spend five minutes writing an essay about their favorite celebrity, an exercise designed to bring their fan feelings to the fore. Finally, all subjects were given...
...turned out that the students who initially scored lowest on the self-esteem scale scored much higher on the second test - almost as high as those who started out with the highest self-esteem scores - after they wrote about their best-loved celebrities. "Because people form bonds in their mind with their favorite celebrities, they are able to assimilate the celebrity's characteristics in themselves and feel better about themselves when they think about that celebrity," says Gabriel. "And that is something these individuals can't do in real relationships because their fear of rejection keeps them from getting close...
...first to acknowledge that her results are not a blanket endorsement of celebrity worship for mental stability. A little can be good, but a lot can become harmful - as stalking and more obsessive behaviors prove. Recent research has even found that celebrity worship can decrease a person's self-esteem because the endless admiration and yearning for a life and lifestyle that are out of reach may end up cementing one's feelings of isolation and inadequacy. Studies conducted in Britain found a range of celebrity-worship styles, from harmless adulation to debilitating addiction. Other research has documented...
...race card, after he suggested that Republicans would try to remind voters that he doesn't look like the Presidents on U.S. currency. I've already reported Obama's negative response to a New Hampshire voter who asked him to launch another Clintonesque national conversation about race: "All that self-flagellation, it's not useful. African Americans get all riled up, and whites get defensive." In a year when generic Democrats are trouncing generic Republicans and polls suggest that the domestic and foreign policies he supports are much more popular than McCain's, it's certainly not useful for Obama...
...weekend, many news organizations had mounted a backlash of their own, running prominent pieces accusing the self-branded "straight-talking" McCain of deceiving voters. "The 'Straight-Talk Express' has detoured into doublespeak," announced the Associated Press, while the New York Times blared, "McCain Barbs Stirring Outcry as Distortions...