This study examined personality and emotional factors associated with celebrity admiration. Building on past research linking specific personality traits to an inability to effectively regulate emotional states, we specifically examined the role of the Dark Triad (psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism) in predicting emotional dysregulation and problematic celebrity attachment in a cross-sectional analysis of 245 participants. We predicted that (1) Dark Triad scores (both total and individual facets) would be positively correlated with emotional dysregulation; (2) emotional dysregulation would be positively associated with maladaptive celebrity admiration; and (3) emotional dysregulation would mediate the relationship between Dark Triad traits and unhealthy celebrity admiration. Results provided partial support for these predictions: each of the Dark Triad traits was positively related to emotional dysregulation. These findings help shed light on the interrelations among personality, celebrity admiration, and emotional dysregulation. Implications and avenues for future research are discussed.
Hitlan et al. (Sun,) studied this question.