New Delhi: “Who got married to whom?”, “Who broke up and why?”, “Who wore what?” – When we hear these questions, one does not require solving complex mathematical equations to figure out the premise of the conversation. The celebrity gossip industry has been a thriving industry for a long time now and everyone wants to know what’s hot in the town. 

Often viewed as a negative habit, gossip, in a way, is embedded in human nature and it can also help forge relationships in some instances. According to R.I.M. Dunbar, a British anthropologist, evolutionary psychologist, and specialist in primate behaviour, “Gossip in this broad sense plays a number of different roles in the maintenance of socially functional groups through time.”

However, as common as it might be, a recent study has revealed controversial, yet comical findings related to gossiping. It is controversial because the study downright called people who indulge in celebrity gossip less intelligent. After all, the findings of the study have turned into a matter of gossip as well. 

About the study

The study, conducted on 1763 Hungarian adults, was published in BMC Psychology titled “Celebrity worship and cognitive skills revisited: applying Cattell’s two-factor theory of intelligence in a cross-sectional study”. The fluid intelligence was assessed through a 30-word vocabulary test and a digit symbol substitution test.

As reported by PsyPost, the authors of the study said, “Interest in the topic of celebrity worshipers spans almost two decades. From several studies, over that period, research showed a weak to moderate tendency for those who showed the strongest admiration for their favourite celebrity to have lower cognitive skills, using a variety of cognitive measures.”

“We found a weak tendency for those who showed the strongest admiration for their favourite celebrity to have lower cognitive skills, suggesting that the earlier results were not due just to chance. Our results also support previous findings showing that excessive behaviours such as celebrity worshipping can possibly impair cognitive functioning, presumably due to the increased focus and energy invested in this behaviour that becomes dominant in the individual’s life,” they added.

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