Fama volat — Gossip has wings, but why? Part 1
Why are gossip and celebrity news so popular?
Why people read gossip news? This was one of the main research questions that triggered the last piece of explorative research at Reach. Better understanding our audience can inspire new ideas about how to meet their needs.
An old habit
Not surprisingly, interest in celebrity news is rooted in human history, and perhaps in the evolution of human behaviour itself. Before the Kardashians and Justin Bieber, Frantz Liszt, a composer who lived in the 1800s, was preceded only by his fame and apparently dashing personality. Interest in him grew so much over time that it lead people to coin the term Lisztmania: a term that described the fan frenzy toward the composer and his lifestyle. Something not dissimilar from the Bieber fever nowadays.
According to the evolutionary psychologist Daniel Krueger, human brain is designed to get attracted to gossip, especially if it is descriptive of the activities of high-status individuals. This behaviour is something that we still partially share with other primates, and is part of the evolutionary mechanism that helped humans to live in a social context.
Krueger states here, there are apparently two main advantages in reading gossip news: the first one is beneficial for the reader and his/her self since “learning what high-status individuals do, so you might more effectively become one”. The second reason is beneficial to the relationship between the individual and the wider community because, according to Krueger “knowing what is going on with high-status individuals, you’d be better able to navigate the social scene.”
Why we did it?
Bad news, good news, it all seems to be compelling. When we checked in January 2020, celebrity news and gossip were two of the most popular topics with our readers.
But, if we want to be brutally honest, little was known about how our readers follow this genre. When we started to investigate, we had the feeling that the habit of following celebrity news was not always declared, in certain cases even it was even hidden, and sheltered from possible interpretations. To understand this behaviour in more depth we decided to explore:
- Why people read celebrity news?
In this investigation was important to depict the behavioural traits and motivations that lead readers to consume celebrity news. In particular, we wanted to learn who reads celebrity news, and when do they read it?'. After that, it was important to state what are the opportunities to make a better reading experience with our products.
Why people read celebrity news?
This study shed light on the motivations that are triggering the reading activity in our users, and a series of reasons emerged. The most common were:
- I don’t want to think
- I want to have a conversation starter
- I like to follow a local celebrity
- I like to be inspired by a celebrity
- I enjoy reading ‘bad’ news
Most of our participants expressed the desire to read in order to escape from their day-to-day lives, and find a moment of peace of mind. Some others instead, wanted to find a story to start a conversation with family and friends and break the ice. Another common motivation was to follow a local member of their own community who is actively involved in the promotion and organisation of local activities. Some participants also, more interestingly, admitted to enjoying reading negative facts about famous people: reading that even wealthy celebrities face hard times is somehow comforting to them since it establishes that life is hard for everyone.
But how do these motivations change the behaviour of our readers?
Who are our readers?
These and other questions will be answered in the next blog post :)
