From Taylor Swift to MLK: Understanding adolescents’ famous character role models

Abstract

Famous people can positively influence young people by serving as examples of how to be a good person, but very little is known about which famous people youth look up to and why they do so. We coded and analyzed open-response data from 596 adolescents (Mage = 14.09 years; 58.5% girls, 57.5% White) in the northeastern United States to understand the types of famous people youth look up to and why they reported nominating them. Youth identified a variety of individuals as their famous character role models (FCRMs), ranging from athletes to politicians to activists and YouTube stars. The results suggest there are various reasons young people look up to FCRMs as examples of how to be a good person, although character attributes appear to be the most frequently cited reasons. Results serve as an important precursor to a more comprehensive investigation of the influence (either positive or negative) of these public figures.