The Influence Of Idol Worship And Group Identification On Fan Aggression

Worship is a normal human psychological phenomenon,which originates from people’s submission to nature.With the advancement of science and technology,the mystery of natural phenomena has disappeared,so people put their spirits on outstanding figures in society.In China,celebrity worship has developed its own characteristics after decades of development.Fans who like the same star find partners online,forming a huge group.The group is closely connected,and members will collectively act for a common goal,including cyberbullying.Cyberbullying caused by fans has become a serious social problem,which will endanger the physical and mental health of young people and pollute the normal online environment.On China’s most popular social platforms,such as Weibo and Douyin,such incidents have occurred so frequently that the official media have posted criticisms.According to existing research,cyberbullying is more common among people who know each other,while cyberbullying by fans is the opposite.Many fans will speak harsh words to strangers.But in either case,the harm of cyberbullying to teenagers is unquestionable.In this study,to explore why fans go to cyberbullying,two factors were selected,one from themselves and one from their group: the level of celebrity worship and group identity.If a fan’s celebrity worship has reached a pathological level,then his attitude towards idols is extreme,and he is more likely to do behaviors that hurt others.In addition,social psychologists have confirmed that group identity is a major source of group actions,that is,the higher the group identity of members,the more likely they are to participate in actions that are beneficial to the group.Especially when faced with inter-group threats,members are very likely to be aggressive to external group members.Therefore,in this study,Experiment 1 uses three questionnaires to explore the relationship between celebrity worship,group identity and the frequency of cyberbullying.Experiment 2 added threat conditions to investigate whether fans’ aggression level would be lower in situations where there is no threat,even if the group identity is high.Here,there are two types of threat conditions: objective textual content and controversial textual content to gain attention.The results found that there was a significant positive correlation between celebrity worship,group identity and cyberbullying.Celebrity worship had an impact on the frequency of cyberbullying through group identification.Among fans with a high group identity,threat condition lead to a higher level of aggression than ordinary situations,and controversial texts cause higher aggression than objectively evaluated texts.