Study claims people who are obsessed with celebrities are less intelligent

If you consider yourself a die-hard Drake fan or can't get enough of the Kardashians, rest assured you're in good company, but according to a recent Hungarian study, you might be perceived as less intelligent.

The study, published in BMC Psychology last year, suggests that individuals deeply engrossed in Hollywood gossip and A-list celebrity news might not score high on intelligence, though many of us identify as being 'celebrity obsessed'. It feels a bit like a direct hit on personal interests.

A group of 1,763 Hungarian adults were involved in a study where they were required to undergo a 30-word vocabulary test and a digit symbol substitution test. Following these tests, they were asked to fill out a questionnaire regarding their attitudes towards celebrities, which aimed to gauge their levels of interest in celebrities. The questionnaire included statements like 'I frequently feel the urge to learn about the personal lives of my favorite celebrity,' and participants were expected to respond with either yes or no.

Other statements included, '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.'

Looking at both literacy and numeracy, the research found that 'there is a direct association between celebrity worship and poorer performance on cognitive tests,' meaning that, generally speaking, those who scored higher on the celeb questionnaire scored lower in the intelligence tests.

To obtain a comprehensive understanding, researchers included questions about participants' income, wealth, and education levels. However, it remains unclear whether these factors influenced the study outcomes.

The researchers admitted the difficulty in determining whether avid celebrity fans performed poorly on cognitive tests due to their mental focus on A-listers or because of inherent cognitive challenges.

According to the researchers, "Future studies should seek additional evidence to support our hypothesis that investing cognitive effort in maintaining a strong obsession with a favorite celebrity might hinder performance in tasks requiring attention and other cognitive skills. While our research doesn't confirm that developing a deep fixation on a celebrity directly leads to lower scores on cognitive tests, it does imply the importance of carefully managing emotions for them."

Anyway, enough of this reading; we're heading off to watch The Kardashians...

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