When looking at the way fans and stans behave, both with each other and with celebrities, it's clear that there are psychological conditions at play. For some people, attachments to celebrities rarely form or do not form at all; for others, attachments form casually; and for a few others, the attachment becomes rooted deeply in their psyche, reaching differing levels of intensity. Not all fans have online accounts dedicated to their celebrity/s of choice, and not all fans have parasocial connections with their favorite stars. There is extensive research on the psychology of being a fan/stan, and several different theories have arisen from this research:

• Philip Cushman’s idea of the “empty self” versus the “social self”;

• Lynn McCutcheon and the three levels of celebrity worship;

• and how social media affects both.⁹

The “empty self/social self” theory is linked to the idea that people may gravitate towards celebrities because they are distressed or feel inadequate (“empty” self) or because they desperately want human connection and an interesting life (“social” self).

The “three levels of celebrity worship” theory (also known as the Celebrity Attitude Scale, or CAS) is the idea that people who engage in celebrity worship are all on different sides of a spectrum in terms of how pathological their tendencies are. The mildest/most normal form is the “entertainment-social” level, which is only being a casual fan of a celebrity; talking about them with your friends is a pastime activity. The second form is the “intense-personal” level, where the interest is more obsessive; maybe you mainly consume content of a certain celebrity and not much else, keeping up with what they’re up to. The third and most pathological form is the “borderline-pathological” level, where there is a deep obsession with the celebrity; people at this level may stalk celebrities or falsely believe that they have some sort of relationship with them. In "What Explains Our Fascination With Celebrities?" Robert Reeves states that social media has allowed people to have “more access” to celebrities in a way, and that now they can be seen as normal people just like me and you. “Celebrities who tweet often reveal more candid personal information and can create feelings of closeness for fans, in addition to managing their image, although in some cases the celebrity may not actually be the one managing the Twitter account,” Reeves highlights. This can be dangerous because it can help foster parasocial relationships between fans and celebrities.

“New Study Links Celebrity Worship to Addictive and Problematic Social Media Use” by Eric Dolan discusses a study done by a Hungarian team of researchers that sought to prove that celebrity worship is linked with obsessive and debilitating social media usage. The article pulls quotes directly from the study itself, which was published in the journal Psychology of Popular Media. The study was partially based on previous research that suggested that “individuals who admire celebrities have poor social skills and are at a greater risk of engaging in compulsive behaviors.” With that information in mind, the researchers wanted to see if there was a link between celebrity worship and problematic social media usage. They surveyed 437 Hungarians between 14 and 64 years old, “regarding their social media habits, celebrity worship, and other factors.” They did find a link between the two: people who excessively “stan” a celebrity are more likely to engage in harmful social media usage than those who only like celebrities casually. This, however, does not mean that people who spend a lot of time on social media are necessarily prone to celebrity worship; people who are engaging in problematic social media usage are the ones who are more likely to be celebrity-obsessed. This habit seems to be addictive and can be caused by feelings of loneliness in people’s real lives.¹⁰

Celebrities seem like they are the very definition of flawless at times. They have glowing skin, shiny and hydrated hair, and perfect bodies. For men, a "perfect body" usually means having defined jawlines, bulging muscles, trimmed facial hair, and a perfect smile. For women, this usually means a slim figure with a small waist, with breasts proportional to the rest of their body, with no body hair in sight. These body types aren't entirely realistic for the average person – celebrities often have to follow strict diets, exercise and skincare regimens, and hair removal procedures to maintain their "naturally flawless" looks. Some celebrities even get plastic surgery to alter their features to fit the beauty standards in the country they are in. Magazine shoots often use the power of Photoshop to hide any last-minute imperfections.

There are several studies that all link a negative body image to celebrity worship. One in particular by Mara Aruguete et al. discusses the statistical outcome of a study they performed on college students in America. They surveyed 279 men and women under the hypothesis that the tendency to worship celebrities was linked to “self-objectification, enjoyment of sexualization, and eating pathology.” The researchers used several different scales: the Celebrity Attitude Scale (CAS); the Self-Objectification Questionnaire (SOQ); the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT); and a modified version of the European Social Survey (ESS). The results showed that out of all the participants, men who engaged in celebrity worship were more likely to enjoy sexualization and have disordered eating habits than women. Enjoyment of sexualization and eating pathology may be casually linked to celebrity worship, Aruguete et al. states. The research also suggests that eating disorders may be a result of depression, neuroticism, and anxiety.¹¹ In another study, researcher Nancy Clark discusses the impact that social media has on people’s perception of their bodies. Clark talks about how on social media platforms like Instagram, many people only see one type of body being promoted and celebrated – a lean, toned one. This, Clark says, leads to people thinking that that body type is the norm, and that anything outside of that is abnormal and needs to be fixed. This then leads to eating disorders and overexercising. Clark shows statistics from a German study that shows that almost half of 25- to 74-year-old women and a third of men of the same age are dissatisfied with their bodies. Clark notes that while studies about body image issues mainly focus on women and young girls, a good number of men also experience this same issue – men with body dissatisfaction desire to be stronger and more muscular. Clark uses a quote from a college athlete about how comparing herself to other women on social media would only push her to unhealthy habits and anxiety. Clark ends the article urging readers to love themselves as they are, regardless of their body type, and to not make being skinny the end goal.¹²

This unhealthy fixation on body image is also very prevalent in the K-pop fandom. K-pop idols are constantly exercising and practicing dance routines, and oftentimes their companies will restrict their diets so that they don't gain too much weight. When a K-pop fan watches idols with perfect bodies doing difficult choreography, posing for photoshoots, and appearing in makeup commercials, it's easy to compare oneself to them. In “Celebrity Worship and Body Image among Young Girls Fans of K-Pop Girl Groups,” Kadek Ayu Anatasya Divina Tresna et al. discuss the results of a research study conducted on adolescent girls and young adult women in Indonesia who are fans of K-pop girl groups. This study utilized both the CAS and the Multidimensional Body-Self Relation Questionnaire-Appearance Scale (MBSRQ-AS) to express the results of the study. The researchers surveyed 414 Indonesian women who were between 18 and 22 years of age. They asked questions for each level of the CAS, with answer choices ranging from strong disagreement to strong agreement. They did the same for the MBSRQ-AS. Tresna et al. concluded that each level of the CAS (entertainment-social, intense-personal, and borderline-pathological) has a different relationship with body image. For example, responders who were placed in the entertainment-social category had a significant positive correlation with appearance orientation, meaning that women at this level are more likely to focus on their appearance and take care of themselves versus the other two levels of the CAS. Women placed in the borderline-pathological category had a significant negative correlation with body-area satisfaction, which showed that the deeper the parasocial relationship one has with a K-pop group, the less satisfied one is with their appearance. Responders were also asked about their weight-loss habits, which showcased that borderline-pathological celebrity worshippers tried losing weight in unhealthy ways more often than entertainment-social or intense-personal responders.¹³

The culture of celebrity worship on social media truly is multifaceted. Millions of people log onto Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and other platforms to discuss their favorite singers, actors, and content creators every day in their communities. They fight with each other, they spam their favorite celebs with heart emojis and declarations of love, they make fun of celebrities they don't like, and more. The mentality of stans is also multifaceted, their attachments to celebrities spanning from casual interests to pathological obsessions. What is one supposed to do to combat the more problematic side of celebrity worship, and how does one stop that behavior from manifesting in oneself? The answer is simple: remember that there is a person on the other side of the screen. Whether it's a celebrity with millions of adoring fans, or a fan with a few hundred or thousand followers, each social media account has a living, breathing human behind it. Being kind to one another is the first step in reducing the cyberbullying that happens on stan spaces. With time, the culture of celebrity worship on social media can become the ideal version of it: a fun-loving, creative place for fans to come together as one.