J Adult Dev (2011) 18:1–7
DOI 10.1007/s10804-010-9100-0
Fan Behavior and Lifespan Development Theory: Explaining
Para-social and Social Attachment to Celebrities
Gayle S. Stever
Published online: 5 October 2010
Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010
Abstract The theories of Levinson (1986 Am Psychol
41(1):3–13) and Erikson (1959 Identity and the life cycle.
WW Norton and Co, New York, 1968 Youth and crisis.
WW Norton and Co, New York), Bandura’s (1986 Social
foundations of thought and action: a social cognitive the-
ory. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs) Social Cognitive
Theory, and the ethological attachment theories of Bowlby
(1969 Attachment and loss, Vol. 1, attachment. Hogarth,
London), and Ainsworth (1978 Patterns of attachment: a
psychological study of the strange situation. Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale) are used in a discussion of
the para-social and social relationships that fans have with
celebrities. Fans’ attachments to celebrities play primary
and secondary roles in the developmental stages of adult-
hood and transitions between those stages. Celebrities are
role models for adults, and attachment develops in much
the same way it develops in face-to-face relationships, e.g.
through proximity and familiarity with the face, voice, and
manner of the celebrity. Included are examples from the
fan research of the author. One conclusion is that fan
attachments are often part of the normal course of adult
development in the areas of identity, intimacy, and gen-
erativity. Additionally, application of Levinson’s concept
of stage transitions suggested that this might be a time
when relationships with celebrities are more likely to
begin.
Keywords Para-social
Celebrity
Fans
Erikson

Levinson
Attachment
Bandura
G. S. Stever (&)
Empire State College, State University of New York,
10 Campbell Park, Rochester, NY 14606, USA
e-mail: Gayle.stever@esc.edu
Theories of developmental psychology are a good fit when
explaining fan behavior, and the purpose here is to explore
these applications. I have spent the last 20 years doing
participant observer ethnography in various fan commu-
nities, and the conclusions in this article are gleaned from
field notes, interviews, and surveys as well as observations
within each of the communities in my studies (Stever 1990,
1991a, b, 1994a, b, 1995, 2008, 2009a, b, 2011).
While extensive research has been conducted in areas
like social psychology (Giles 2000, 2002), sociology
(Adams and Sardellio 2000; Ferris 2001), mass commu-
nication (Rubin and Step 2000; Rubin and McHugh 1987),
popular culture (Sandvoss 2005; Harrington and Bielby
1995), and anthropology (Caughey 1984), only limited
research has examined fans and their relationships with
celebrities in the developmental literature. When psychol-
ogists study fan behavior, they tend to emphasize the
pathological end of the spectrum of fan behavior with very
little being said about average people who engage in para-
social and social attachments to celebrities (Dietz et al.
1991; Maltby et al. 2006). The emphasis in this article will
be on how being a fan affects the course of development
for the primarily healthy adult.
Developmentalists have completed substantial work in
the area of attachment, including study of infant/caregiver
attachment (Ainsworth 1978; Bowlby 1969) and adult
romantic attachment (Shaver et al. 1988). In the past
20 years, attachment theory has also begun to be applied to
para-social attachments although most applications have
been limited to adolescents (Adams-Price and Greene
1990; Giles and Maltby 2004). I have observed that
developmental theories apply to fan behavior and also
para-social interaction, defined as the one-way knowing of
another person who does not know the fan in return
(Horton and Wohl 1956). The purpose of this paper is to
123
2 G. S. Stever
demonstrate the usefulness of developmental theory for
understanding fan behavior based on those observations
and experiences (Stever 1990, 1991a, b, 1994a, b, 1995,
2008, 2009a, b, 2011).
Fan communities studied included those of Star Trek
and specific Star Trek actors, Michael Jackson, Bruce
Springsteen, Lord of the Rings and specific actors from the
movies, Madonna, George Michael, Prince, Janet Jackson,
Paul McCartney, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Josh Groban. The-
ories included are the lifespan theories of Levinson (1986)
and Erikson (1959, 1968), Bandura’s (1986) Social
Cognitive Theory, and the ethological attachment theories
of Bowlby (1969), and Ainsworth (1978).
Life Stage Theories
Erikson (1959, 1968) offered his psychosocial theory
wherein each stage of life is driven by a crisis. When all of
the crises are resolved in concert, healthy ego identity is
achieved. A recent addition to this theory suggested that all
the stages of adulthood are involved in the development of
identity and that intimacy, generativity, and integrity are
subcategories of identity (Whitbourne and Connolly 1999).
In the context of this theory, it would make sense that
para-social and social attachment to celebrities would be
explained differently depending on the stage of develop-
ment of the participant. The most salient stages of lifespan
development in the fan groups studied (Stever 2008) have
been adolescence, young adulthood, and middle adulthood.
For each of these stages, Erikson described a develop-
mental crisis. For the adolescent, the crisis is identity
versus diffusion; for the young adult, it is intimacy versus
isolation; and for the middle adult, the crisis is generativity
versus self-absorption. Levinson’s (1986) stage theory
augments the idea of stages with stage transitions. At
critical developmental junctures, a period of transition
leads to the next stage. A transition is a chance to evaluate
the past and think about the future. ‘‘What have I done with
my life? What do I want to make of it? What new direc-
tions shall I choose?’’ (Levinson 1978, p. 84).
An adolescent in the midst of identity crisis looks for
models to emulate. Particularly for adolescents who don’t
have models in the home, the media provide a wealth of
celebrities who fit as role models for just about any identity
desired. Whether the young person is into rebellion, social
activism, or philanthropy, potential models abound
(Adams-Price and Greene 1990; Erikson 1968; Giles and
Maltby 2004).
For the young adult struggling with the crisis of inti-
macy versus isolation, media and celebrities can play a role
in a person’s struggle at this stage. Erikson (1959) said that
if intimacy was not achieved, isolation was the result. In an
123
era of transient family life where people move frequently,
parents often divorce, and breakup is a way of life, young
adults feel increasingly isolated. Many see attachment and
a sense of intimacy with a celebrity to be preferable to the
feelings of isolation they experience otherwise. As one
28-year-old woman explained, vicarious romance is better
than no romance at all. The popularity of paperback
romance novels is one kind of evidence that this is most
likely true. Experiencing a romance that is not ‘‘real’’ is
satisfying on some level. Levinson (1986) referred to the
‘‘Age 30 Transition,’’ where adults must decide the basis
for their next life structure. If a real relationship has not
been established, some fans decide to move ahead with the
para-social relationship as a primary structure in his or her
life. Levinson pointed out that this involves the person
saying ‘‘This I will settle for,’’ (p. 6) as he or she begins to
create the next step in the life journey. Indeed, the fans
settle for something that is not real rather than have no
romantic attachment at all.
The fans I met and interviewed who are doing this were
well aware of what they were doing. They chose to fall in
love with their target celebrity. Unless they were delusional
or ill, they knew it would not ever be real. Sometimes
distance from the celebrity was a good thing for them,
particularly in the case of participants who had been in a
dysfunctional or damaging relationship. After her father
had divorced her mother and abandoned their family, one
18-year-old young woman said: ‘‘I love Michael Jackson,
and he can’t leave me or hurt me.’’ Another woman, who
was the near-victim of date rape on two occasions, pre-
ferred the safety of a distant para-social relationship.
For fans in middle age, a number of unique situations
occur. Some fans have used fan activity as a way to
recapture aspects of lost youth. A group of women gath-
ering at someone’s home for a sleepover party where much
giggling and watching of videos and looking at photos is
the primary activity are engaging in social behavior that
was familiar for many of them in their younger years. Girls
in high school often got together to giggle together and talk
about a boy from school that they all liked. To reconvene
years later and gossip about a favorite celebrity was a way
to feel young again, a way to bond with other women of
similar tastes, and a way to connect on an emotional level.
Usually, there was the sharing of some commonly enjoyed
music, television program, or movie(s) in addition to the
common fascination with the celebrity. I attended an event
where there were 40 women crammed into one hotel room
watching Lawrence after Arabia: a Dangerous Man and
shrieking and sighing every time Alexander Siddig came
onto the screen. Whether watching Orlando Bloom in Troy
or Josh Groban in concert, the behavior is similar and in
each case mentioned, a majority of the participants were in
the 30 to 65 or middle-adulthood age range.
Fan Behavior and Lifespan Development Theory
Erikson (1959) suggested that if a crisis of a prior
developmental stage was not resolved, it would be revisited
in later stages. Erikson stated, ‘‘the first must persistently
outweigh (although it will never do away completely with)
the second’’ (p. 128). So with healthy ego identity, inti-
macy outweighs isolation, identity outweighs diffusion, or
generativity outweighs self-absorption.
Fans in middle age may be revisiting the intimacy crisis.
But perhaps it is necessary to consider the more psycho-
analytic or Freudian aspects of Erikson’s (1959) theory and
suggest that what is at work here is regression as an ego
defense mechanism. Is this kind of behavior a hedge
against aging? A number of women who were interviewed
from the Josh Groban fan base recounted that having
romantic feelings for him makes them feel young again.
Throughout this study (Stever 2008), people who had lost
significant others or whose relationships were no longer
positive said things such as, ‘‘I didn’t think I could feel this
way about anyone again.’’
As already mentioned, Levinson’s (1986) theory added
the important concept of transitions between life stages. I
have observed that para-social attachments are often sought
during critical life transitions. A common scenario would
be a woman who has recently lost a spouse or significant
other, who seeks solace in the social environment of a fan
club and re-engages the world of relationships by engaging
in one that is imaginary. One fan stated, ‘‘After I lost my
husband, I didn’t think I could feel that way about someone
ever again. My feelings for Josh made me realize that I
could be attracted to other men and that put me back in
touch with my feelings in general.’’ Another fan, whose
fiancée had passed away suddenly, told me that she never
left the house except to go to work, until she was motivated
to go to the concerts (given by her favorite celebrity). That
became the motivation for rejoining the social world. Each
of these fans as well as others in the studies was at a critical
life transition that had been triggered by a significant loss
(death, divorce etc.), and dealt with the loss by finding a
para-social attachment. In some cases, these were women
recovering from divorce. Some were recovering from the
death of a spouse. Some simply never found the time to
marry because of things like career or extended family.
They joked that ‘‘I’m not dead yet’’ and they simply
enjoyed being around someone who made them feel young
again. None of the fans referred to here were delusional.
They knew the relationship wasn’t ‘‘real.’’ It did not matter.
They had found something that reconnected them to their
feelings. And in these reported cases, the result appeared to
be healthy, with increased happiness and functioning for
the person.
Erikson’s (1959) primary crisis of middle age is called
generativity versus self-absorption. One either finds a way
to give back to the next generation or one focuses on the
3
self and selfish interests resulting in a lack of productivity
wherein the person has not found a way to help build the
future for younger generations. Middle-aged fans were the
ones most likely to get involved in charity activities that
were inspired by celebrities. Two good examples of this
were Star Trek fans and the Josh Groban fans. In each case,
people had found a way through their fan interest to help
society and to make substantial contributions to the well
being of others. Whether it was raising money for Doctors
without Borders in partnership with Rene Auberjonois and
Alexander Siddig, or sewing blankets for orphans in Africa
as a part of Grobanites for Charity (affiliated with the Josh
Groban Foundation), fans joined a fan club because they
liked a celebrity, but what they found that made them stay
was a way to make a difference for people in need.
Ethological Theory and Attachment
A second theory is the ethological perspectives of Bowlby
(1969), and Ainsworth (1978), who developed the theory of
attachment that is part of our current understanding of
infant-caregiver attachment. Related to these ideas is the
theory of Shaver et al. (1988) concerning adult romantic
attachment. Bowlby (1969) originally proposed that infants
are born with a kind of biological programing, causing
them to exhibit behaviors that are designed to enhance
their survival. Building on those ideas, Ainsworth (1978)
developed a theory of attachment that suggested that when
humans feel strong attachments to each other, a proximity
seeking system is engaged causing individuals to want to
be with the attachment object no matter what the cost.
Shaver et al. (1988) then proposed that these same
attachment patterns persist into adulthood and shape our
adult romantic attachments. Schore (2000) further sug-
gested that attachment involved ‘‘psychobiological mech-
anisms by which these processes indelibly influence the
development of the organism at later points of the life-
cycle’’ (p. 24).
One prominent aspect of ethological theory is literature
on the newborn propensity to be attracted to the human
face. Numerous research studies support the idea that
human infants are born with a tendency to look longer at
human faces than any other objects (Muir et al. 1994;
Schore 2000). That gazing behavior is the first in a series of
behaviors that works to attract a caregiver and elicit care
from that caregiver. Attachment and its counterpart in the
caregiver (called bonding) are strengthened as the human
face becomes more and more familiar (Blehar et al. 1977;
Schore 2000).
Until about a century ago, human beings primarily saw
the faces of those they knew in their immediate families
and neighborhoods. It was rare to see a human face unless
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4 G. S. Stever
the person was known. This has radically changed in the
past 100 years. In my 20 years of observation of intense
attraction and attachment to celebrities, one of the com-
monalities in every fan base studied has been the fascina-
tion on the part of the fan with the face of the target
celebrity. One of the most shared artifacts in fan groups is a
photograph of the attachment object, with close-ups of the
face being particularly valued. With the advent of the
Internet, it has become very easy to exchange photographs
of a celebrity, but even pre-Internet, fans in the late 1980s
and early 1990s’ would exchange copies of photographs by
mail. Once networked into the fan community of Michael
Jackson, for example, I received dozens of photographs of
Jackson from fans who had been met through correspon-
dence or at fan events. Without particularly seeking these
photographs out, they were still sent by numerous
correspondents.
As my study transitioned to fans of Star Trek beginning
in 1991, Star Trek conventions were attended where one of
the staples of fan merchandising was the celebrity photo-
graph, most often a ‘‘headshot’’ or close-up of the face.
One celebrity’s fan club sold photographs to raise money
for charity, and there were many fans who had to have
every one of the photos offered, no matter how many the
fan already had. This same fascination with photos was
found in other fan bases such as Lord of the Rings, Xena,
Stargate, and Babylon 5.
Most recently, my study of Internet fan web sites yiel-
ded a similar observation. Considering the web sites of
Alexander Siddig, Nana Visitor, Sean Bean, Orlando
Bloom, Jake Gyllenhaal, Sarah Brightman, RyanDan, Josh
Groban, and a number of others, one of the common staples
of fan club web sites is ‘‘picture threads’’ or discussion
forums where the posting of pictures is the primary
activity.
A hypothesis to be tested with a more systematic study
of larger numbers would be: Anyone who looks frequently
enough at pictures of a media figure is likely to form an
attachment to that figure. When surrounded by photographs
of a particular media persona, fans exhibited feelings of
familiarity, i.e. emotions like concern, care, and attraction.
While sexual attraction was an element of this attraction, it
is simplistic to attribute feelings of attachment only to
romantic or sexual feelings for a celebrity. Indeed, while
studying celebrities as diverse as Michael Jackson, George
Michael, Josh Groban, and Orlando Bloom as well as
females such as Janet Jackson, Madonna, Nana Visitor, and
others, the sense of familiarity seemed to change fans’
perception of them. Further study is needed to test this
hypothesis.
Here is the important point: People are biologically
predisposed to form attachments to familiar others
(Bowlby 1969; Muir et al. 1994; Schore 2000). When the
123
familiar other is a celebrity, it is difficult to make the
distinction between someone known and someone known
through media (Restak 1991). Restak’s hypothesis was that
there is a part of the human brain that cannot really tell the
difference between something experience in real life and
something experienced through media. His discussion
focused on experiences of violence through the media, but
the concept could be extended to include social experiences
with celebrities.
So the attachment process is engaged with the same
intensity as it would if the target were someone who was
seen on a daily basis. Romantic relationships progress from
initial attraction to a honeymoon phase of romantic infat-
uation (Fisher 2004). Then if they are destined to move to
the next level, that honeymoon phase ends and a ‘‘real
knowing’’ comes about. Numerous fans have expressed,
either personally to me or on public discussion boards, their
frustration when they reached the phase when what they
were feeling made them want to have more from the
celebrity, and they realized the social aspect of the rela-
tionship had gone as far as it was likely to ever go.
That people should stop ‘‘obsessing’’ on celebrities and
focus on the ‘‘real people’’ in their lives is a common and
repeating theme in the psychological literature (e.g. Maltby
et al. 2006; McCarley and Escoto 2003; McCutcheon et al.
2003). Fan relationships are perceived as obsessive and
dysfunctional and are seen as poor substitutes for a real
relationship with a person who is accessible. And yet the
reality is that many people continue to allow themselves to
‘‘fall in love’’ with people they may never meet. They carry
on love relationships at a distance and some people find
that experience to be satisfying. (There are others who
become ill and psychologically troubled, but this topic is
beyond the scope of this paper). The judgment as to if this
is helpful or unhealthy behavior is not as easy to make as it
might seem on the surface. While I would agree that
sometimes such behavior is unhealthy, I have seen many
cases where the focus on a celebrity created a cushion
between real relationships such that a pattern of dysfunc-
tional attraction was broken. Indeed, one woman shared
with me that after a succession of real dating relationships
with men who turned out not to be compatible, she
observed that her children were devastated each time she
broke up with someone. She decided to focus on a vicari-
ous attachment to her favorite celebrity for a time in order
to stop this pattern of relationship break-ups that were so
hard on her children. The vicarious relationship was a
transition for her, and 6 years later, she resumed dating in
real life. Speaking about this time of her life, she felt that
this had been a good choice for her and for her family.
How does one maintain a depth of feeling for such a
person, one not seen on a regular basis and whose presence
is only felt through their work or words? The ethological
Fan Behavior and Lifespan Development Theory
attachment theories of Bowlby (1969) and Ainsworth
(1978) would suggest it is the repeated exposure to the
human face that reinforces the attachment. In addition, the
human voice serves as an additional reinforcer (DeCasper
and Fifer 1980; Schore 2000). The Internet has made the
spoken voice of celebrities available, particularly through
the current YouTube phenomenon. A fan of someone like
Josh Groban can go into YouTube, type in his name, and
see almost every media interview he has done for the last
3–5 years. In addition, fan web sites specializing in pre-
serving videos for other fans contain dozens of these
archived media interviews, performances, and other forms
of visual information on the target. The paparazzi stalk
celebrities and offer a selection of moments that were
intended to be private for the celebrity, now available on
the Internet as well.
There is no lack of representations of the human face,
voice, and actions on the Internet, and this wealth of
information feeds the attachment to celebrities who are
depicted in this way. Fans are willing to spend hours and
hours gazing at such media and vicariously experiencing a
relationship with the celebrity. With each photograph and
video, the attachment intensifies.
Once the fan has developed an attachment for the
celebrity, the proximity seeking system is engaged just as it
would be in a relationship with a child or a romantic
partner. Fans seek proximity in a number of ways. Looking
at photographs as discussed above is one way. Being avid
consumers of the creative work of the celebrity is another
way. Some fans seek vicarious proximity through the col-
lecting of memorabilia. In such a context, anything touched
by, used by, or related to the celebrity can take on value.
But most fans leave it at the desire for an autograph or
perhaps having their photos taken with the celebrity. All of
the above is within the boundaries of normal fan behavior
and is rarely troublesome for the fan (Harrington and
Bielby 1995; Kozinets 2001; Stever 1994b; Tulloch and
Jenkins 1995).
Some fans make it a quest to meet the celebrity in
person, and once they have achieved that goal, the desire to
meet him or her again and again can become all consuming
if not kept in check. This potentially disturbing behavior
can be explained by that powerful proximity seeking sys-
tem that drives attachment in human beings. While it is
hard for the non-fan to relate to it in this context, most
people understand such a drive by relating it to the pow-
erful pull one feels for proximity to one’s children or sig-
nificant other. For some fans, the target celebrity takes on
the role of vicarious life partner, and the quest to be near
that person has the potential to take over a person’s life. In
this context, being a fan can become a negative influence
on development. So I am not in disagreement with Maltby
and his colleagues (e.g. Maltby et al. 2006) with respect to
5
what they call ‘‘celebrity worship’’ being a potential sign of
poor mental health. I would simply maintain based on my
own observations that this is not always the case.
Bandura and Reciprocal Determinism
The final theory is Bandura’s (1986) Social Cognitive
Theory. Bandura’s work began at the end of an era of
behaviorism in the 1950’s where behavior was believed to
be the product of a simple chain of stimulus, response, and
reinforcement. Certainly some fan behavior could be
explained this way. Fans received material on a favorite
celebrity, and that material was enjoyable and thus rein-
forcing. The reinforcement caused them to seek out more
material. Thus, fans make good customers, a main reason
why media have learned to court them to a certain degree.
However, Bandura (1986) pointed out that the one-way
model of behaviorism was no longer adequate. His idea
was that human behavior was part of a three-legged tri-
angle made up of the person, his/her environment, and his/
her own behavior. It is an interaction among all three of
these elements that best explains human behavior.
For example, a fan who waits after a concert to meet the
favorite celebrity and is lucky enough to have this happen,
starts out feeling attraction, that attraction causes them to
reach out with behaviors designed to attract the celebrity’s
attention, even if only for a moment. The actual attention
received is a powerful reinforcer that rewards the attraction
and intensifies it. In addition, the celebrity, who is also a
person within the social system, is changed by the inter-
action, and his or her behavior also evolves with respect to
the relationship. Thus, it is not uncommon for the same fan
to have a series of encounters wherein he or she is
remembered and repeatedly rewarded for making the effort
to seek out the celebrity. A celebrity who is highly inter-
active within a fan base develops an extensive network of
fans that are known to that celebrity. Within such a social
system, attachments become powerful and pervasive.
Integration of Theories
This suggests a connection between Social Cognitive
Theory and Attachment Theory. One theory talks about
role models while the other talks about attachment objects,
but in the context of fan–celebrity relationship, the role
model becomes the attachment object, and the two theories
together give a better explanation of the power of that
relationship in the individual’s life than either theory does
separately. Additionally, Erikson’s theory of life stages
suggests that there are times during development when fans
are more vulnerable to developing such attachments to
123
6 G. S. Stever
models than in other stages. Why do some fans develop
pervasive connections to celebrities? Repeated exposure to
the faces of attractive models during a stage of life when
one is looking to form connections to attractive others
could be one explanation as to why the average person can
become strongly attached to a favorite celebrity. Life
events like the loss of a partner can also cause a person to
seek the solace of attachment to someone who is distant
and therefore ‘‘safe.’’
Levinson (1978) suggested that it is during life transi-
tions that we seek to redefine who were are and find new
structures for the life ahead. Are para-social and social
attachments to celebrities more likely to occur during these
transitions? Further research is needed to explore this
question.
Conclusions
The purpose of this paper has been to apply developmental
theory to fan behavior, both para-social and social, in order
to show that most fan interests evolve from the same
developmental processes and tasks that drive other social
behaviors. Bandura’s Social Cognitive theory, Attachment
Theory, and Life Stage Theories all apply to fan behavior
as they might to other kinds of behaviors. These applica-
tions suggest that fans are simply people who have chosen
relationships with celebrities in order to meet psychosocial
needs. This would appear to be a natural byproduct of a
society where much of the information we process about
the world comes to us through mass media, whether TV,
movies, or the Internet.
The issue involved is the degree to which para-social
and social attachments to celebrities are a positive influ-
ence versus a negative influence in the life of the fan. The
answer to that issue is likely to reflect a continuum more
than a dichotomy. These relationships probably represent
both negative and positive social influences, although it
could be argued that most relationships of any kind are this
way. The response to this issue will differ from individual
to individual. Further study is needed to decipher exactly
how these processes work and how they affect develop-
ment throughout the lifespan.
Another issue involves the extent to which para-social
and social connections with celebrities are a primary versus
a secondary part of the person’s social network (Levinson
1986). Both types of cases were encountered: In some
cases, people had primary social relationships with family
and friends in their real daily lives, and the celebrity
relationship was a pleasurable but secondary connection.
In other cases, people felt that the connection they had
with the celebrity was one of the most important in
their lives. Is this purely because of the lack of available
123
real relationships or is this simply a choice some people
make? Further study is needed to consider this question as
well.
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