Transforming Celebrity Objects: Implications for an Account of Psychological Contagion
The celebrity effect is the well-documented phenomenon in which people ascribe an enhanced worth to artefacts owned by famous individuals. This effect has been attributed to a belief in psychological contagion, the transmission of a person’s essence to an object via contact. We examined people’s jud...
Auteurs: | ; |
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Type de support: | Électronique Article |
Langue: | Anglais |
Vérifier la disponibilité: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Publié: |
Brill
2017
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Dans: |
Journal of cognition and culture
Année: 2017, Volume: 17, Numéro: 1/2, Pages: 51-72 |
Sujets non-standardisés: | B
artefact
celebrity object
identity
persistence
psychological contagion
value
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Accès en ligne: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
Résumé: | The celebrity effect is the well-documented phenomenon in which people ascribe an enhanced worth to artefacts owned by famous individuals. This effect has been attributed to a belief in psychological contagion, the transmission of a person’s essence to an object via contact. We examined people’s judgments of the persisting worth of celebrity-owned artefacts following transformations of their parts/material and found that the celebrity effect was evident only for post-transformation artefacts that were composed of parts/material that had direct physical contact with the celebrity. Insofar as the celebrity effect arises from psychological contagion, the findings suggest that the essence imparted to a celebrity-owned artefact is conceived as akin to a residue deposited in/on the object rather than a germ capable of spreading in an indirect manner to new parts/material added to the object. The results illuminate the nature of psychological contagion and offer insight into how best to preserve the value of historically important artefacts. |
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ISSN: | 1568-5373 |
Contient: | In: Journal of cognition and culture
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15685373-12342191 |