Regulatory motivations in celebrity interest: Self-suppression and self-expansion

Due to concerns regarding the theoretical and empirical contexts that surround the description of celebrity interest, the current studies examined the development of a measure of two selfregulatory motivations in celebrity interest (RMiCI): self-suppression and self-expansion. Across two samples (total n = 527), scores on an adapted version of Stenseng, Rise, and Kraft’s (2012) Escapism Scale demonstrated a replicable two-factor structure, concurrent and convergent with other measures of celebrity interest and the biopsychological theory of personality. Scores on the measure also demonstrated discriminant and predictive validity in terms of divergent associations between self-suppression and self-expansion with positive and negative affect respectively. These current findings add to the celebrity interest literature, focussing on regulatory processes in celebrity interest.