Monday, July 25, 2016

Rajinikanth, Tendulkar, Modi: Are Indians prone to 'Celebrity Worship Syndrome'?

The euphoria of epic proportions surrounding Kabali, which was released on Friday, poses one important question: Why do Indians have such an astonishing penchant for idolisation? Be it Rajinikanth or Sachin Tendulkar or Narendra Modi—or Indira Gandhi in the past—Indians, especially those who live south of the Vindhyas, stretch their adulation for their icons to extremes.

Psychologists call it Celebrity Worship Syndrome (CWS), a relatively new subject that caught their interest. The first major study on the subject was published in 2002 by American psychologists Lynn McCutcheon, Rense Lange and James Houran. This was followed in 2003 by a larger study by John Maltby, James Houran and Lynn E McCutcheon. But neither study talked of a Celebrity Worship ‘Syndrome’. The CWS they referred to was, in fact, Celebrity Worship ‘Scale’ which measured the madness.

It was in his story Do you worship the celebs? about the 2003 study that journalist James Chapman took the liberty to expand CWS to Celebrity Worship Syndrome. But no psychologist objected. When taken to ridiculous extents, it was after all a syndrome: an undesirable mental condition. Full story...

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  6. India: they are building a temple for cricket star Mahendra Singh Dhoni !!!

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