I never realized that being “star struck” is a real thing until it happened to me. I recently had an encounter with a TV star at a coffee bar in So Cal.
She came up next to me and ordered as I waited for my order to be delivered. As I glanced over, I instantly recognized her and she looked up from her phone and gave me a polite smile and then went back to what she was doing and I went back to minding my own business. That was the total “encounter.”
What I found fascinating, is that as I was walking back to my car, I realized the encounter had been… thrilling.
I’m not one of those who reads celeb mags or “follows” celebrities. Not a reader of market check out magazines.
But never the less, I was “star struck” and I felt happy simply because I stood next to someone I recognized from a television show. It was so obviously some sort of involuntary biochemical response that it made me laugh.
So why the serotonin party from the star encounter?
Otherwise it’s all about status. Humans, especially male humans, are deeply instinctually attuned to their place in the pecking order. Even though you say you’re not a celeb hound and I believe you, you still have an idea of what a celebrity is and what that condition represents in the larger society.
She’s famous and socially important. You’re not. She shined some bit of status on you simply by being near you and smiling at you. You enjoyed it like your dog enjoys a pat on the head. It’s approval from your master or at least your better.
Hence the success of royalty and rich people running the world for the last umpteen thousand years. Perhaps we can outgrow this; perhaps not. We’ve recently seen a yuuge setback in this area.
You don’t even have to be that close. People pay good money to sit in the back of the theater just to see someone who they once saw on TV, and be in the same room as them.
Because male humans have accustomed to live under hierarchies for most of history. Anyway I disagree with that case, I just think it is mere suggestion from society. You have internalized in your unconscious how someone should feel around a celebrity and you unconsciously produce the “appropriate” responds, even though you aren’t so interested about them as you state.
I believe it’s pretty well established as basic human psychology that male humans have more hierarchical behaviors and female humans have more cooperative egalitarian behaviors.
Yes, both groups recognize and respond to hierarchy. But not to the same degree. They also differ in what factors they use to establish hierarchy.
I experienced that once when the owner of our company was visiting some of the branches in Los Angeles. I was a shop foreman at the time and told to make sure everyone was doing the right thing when the owner came through. This was about the third time I had seen him so had a pretty good idea what to expect. He would walk through with his entourage and smile and say hello to most of us and be gone within about 10 minutes. As expected he walked through and said hi, he asked me my name and how long I had been with the company, standard stuff but then we kind of fell into a conversation. The star struck hit me about 2 minutes into the 5 min conversation and I lost my ability to think. It stayed with me for most of the day.
I hesitate to advance this theory as it’s very pro-elitism, but: it’s possible that great success (a la earning a living in show business or being the owner of a large company) does change the pheromones secreted by the lucky success-story. Happiness and a sense of security are said to enhance the human immune system, so perhaps the immune systems of successful people are particularly strong, and this is evidenced in their sweat and whatnot.
The rich are different, and not just because they have more money (maybe).
There are many reports of girls having orgasms while watching The Beatles perform, and before that classical composers got the same kind of adulation and response.
See this for a Ken Russel/Roger Daltrey take on Lisztomania. Warning - NSFW
Ok, it is well-known that women have an obscession with status. Throughout time and place, even in a modern setting. You might disagree, but this is the truth.
Not just The Beatles, though they were certainly the biggest. Speaking of Roger Daltrey – the lyrics from 5:15 “The ushers are sniffing, Eau-de-cologning” refer to the ushers needing to perfume the seats after all the fifteen year olds… er… ‘leaked’ on them.