Joshua Williams

But I think the way that we've conceptualized this as kind of along that continuum, it's not like a...

yes, you're a celebrity worshiper, no, you're not, but it's almost like a developmental type of thing, right?

And so, you know, when you're in that fandom thing, and actually there's some research to show that there's potentially some positive aspects of that, right?

So maybe even some role models could develop out of that potentially.

But as you start to use that potentially to replace those real relationships or maybe address some of those lower sense of self problems that you might be experiencing, then you start to have some of those thoughts, those unobtrusive thoughts where you can't stop thinking about what they're doing.

To the point where you actually start to get to that point where you are changing everything.

Like this person is dropping an item.

I don't know when.

I'm going to not go to work today so I can sit by my computer and spend $5,000 on a napkin that my celebrity might have used.

You know, I think that it definitely has that transition point, right?

So, I mean, actually, historically, the individual who developed this, the scale that we use, the celebrity attitude scale, he started this work looking at celebrity stalking behavior.

And so, you know, and one can almost imagine that

You know, if you are so in tune and following and you think that you have this very special relationship and it's almost like the illusion that it's reciprocated, like you think that that post that your favorite celebrity just made was meant specifically for you.

Or, for instance, if they change or they do something different and you take that personally as an attack on you, I mean, I could see, especially individuals on the vulnerable narcissism side of things, they tend to have a greater degree of anger.

They might actually engage in what might be called narcissistic rage in some cases.

Some of the research shows that.

which actually we've got some work going on right now that might link both of these things to more criminal thinking styles.

Now there's a lot more stuff that we need to work on with that, but the foundations there and the gradual seriousness of that relationship could definitely lead to that.