Celebrities - Psychology behind their donations

[JP]

Hello together!

I'm doing a project on celebrities and their engagement in charity programmes and sustainable events.

I would like to know why especially celebrities are very active in charity work, from a psychological perspective. how (much) psychologically does it effect us, the audience, when eg. we hear announcements that Pierce Brosnan is active in environmental support or that Britney Spears helped save New Orleans?  Also, why does the average person orient himself around these Stars? what branch of psychology does this fall into?

Thanks for any help, i'm just trying to get some basic knowledge!

J

[SWM]

I am pretty sure that celebs are not as active as they appear to be. I would bet that in percentages of populations most charity work is done by none celebs.

but celebs get media interest whatever they do.

for your project have you thought about how you can measure these factors.

how many celebs as a percentage are active charity workers compared to none celebs.

how much media attention do they get whether doing charity work or not.

your other question, what branch of psychology does the effect of celebs on an audience come under depends on what you are observing. if you study the relationship between celeb and audience that might be social psycholoft. if you study the emotional impact it might come under cognitive psychology. if you study what celeb or audience does under specific circumstances that could be behavioural psychology.

[S. Earl Martin]

Celebrities are really corporations. Just like Micheal Gates etc. it is a tax dodge and a way to get free publicity. Yes they may actually be helping people I will admit that, but their motivation is financial. Money makes the world go round. World go round.

Haveing wealth is like maintaining a garden. It must be cultivated and looked after. If not it will die out and disappear. Especially if you get over 1 million dollars. Forces conspire to take it away. Once you reach the millionaires club.