Why does popularity corrupt

[Meta77]

What Is it about popularity that changes people. Just a curious topic I had in my head. From movie stars to YouTube personalities.  what is it about game that changes a person even for better or worse. Some get on drugs. Others family drama. Mood changes. personality shifts from quiet to outright loud and out there. Political rants.  but most only arises once they hit a certain fame threshold.  Why is that.  what causes it? What makes people change

[Rey Skywalker-Ren]

It's the fact that they are always being watched is what most of them crave. Attention is what they crave. So they often do things or change their behavior in order to have that attention. Nowadays, attention = money.

[Your Vest Friend]

Well, if one considers popularity as a measure of what power one has amongst a social environment, then it's pretty natural that it potentially has similar effects. 

[Meta77]

3 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

Well, if one considers popularity as a measure of what power one has amongst a social environment, then it's pretty natural that it potentially has similar effects. 

But why change why not keep being yourself.  people came to the original didn't they

[Forte-Metallix]

3 minutes ago, Meta77 said:

But why change why not keep being yourself.  people came to the original didn't they

Because, like VEDJ-F said, popularity = social power.

And, as the old saying goes, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely".

[Meta77]

9 minutes ago, Forte-Metallix said:

Because, like VEDJ-F said, popularity = social power.

And, as the old saying goes, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely".

Ok let's add another block. Why do people follow stars. Such as new movie with such a person. I have people say I'm going to see this for this person. Me personally I just like going to see the movie. But many go for stars then I'll see those entertainment papers in newsstands talking of oh look at our divorce.  kid custody.  Or slumped over in a pool of drugs

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

One way I look at it is because the popularity is a kind of indirect form of support the popular figure, and that ends up fueling their ego into a lot of ways because with that support comes a belief that people will back that person up on something.

But every action has an equal an opposite reaction--a shitty attitude can build as much opposition to stain a popular figure as a notorious person to watch out for. Kinda ties into the Golden Rule of treating others as you yourself would want to be treated, and not do onto others what you wouldn't want done onto you. Karma kinda works in mysterious ways.

[Nuggets]

like stated above, popularity comes with a sense of ego and a serious confidence boost, so if there was already a bad person there before the fame, or even just some controversial views, it's only going to get exacerbated when people start telling you that you're actually making good things - with more confidence popular people are going to feel more inclined to talk about how they actually feel. "Oh shit, people are actually listening to what I'm saying - I'm important now." And once you get popular and/or successful, you start to have a lot of people around you who either want a part of that success or are so in awe that they probably just don't want to look stupid or piss said popular figure off, which is where Yes Men come into play. 

You can do some truly stupid shit just being yourself, but if you have a team of people that are afraid of telling you that you're wrong (which is in part because of ego, and in part due to the confidence boost mentioned earlier) then it's very easy to spiral down into a cult of your own personality, where everything you do is right, and no one except the detractors, which are easy to paint as strawmen, are saying anything negative. Once you get to a certain level, people are afraid to be real (and to be fair, regarding self-interest, perhaps rightfully so), and when you have everyone telling you what you want to hear, you kinda lose the ability to be able to look at yourself clearly. You're stuck in an echo chamber.

This is just my understanding of the phenomenon. When an artist releases a subpar album or says something controversial, or a TV show releases a poorly-received episode, it's usually because nobody wanted to say anything. Not a lot of people in Kanye, or Zack Snyder, or Eminem or Christopher Nolan's circles are going to look them in the face and say "hey man, don't do this," unless it's some really foul, Jontron level shit. But it's just a pitfall of being popular. 

[Chris Knopps]

Yeah...

I've got a pretty big ego nowadays.

But hey, I'm a Sonic fan, it fits I'd say. Look at the source material.

[Meta77]

18 hours ago, Nuggets said:

like stated above, popularity comes with a sense of ego and a serious confidence boost, so if there was already a bad person there before the fame, or even just some controversial views, it's only going to get exacerbated when people start telling you that you're actually making good things - with more confidence popular people are going to feel more inclined to talk about how they actually feel. "Oh shit, people are actually listening to what I'm saying - I'm important now." And once you get popular and/or successful, you start to have a lot of people around you who either want a part of that success or are so in awe that they probably just don't want to look stupid or piss said popular figure off, which is where Yes Men come into play. 

You can do some truly stupid shit just being yourself, but if you have a team of people that are afraid of telling you that you're wrong (which is in part because of ego, and in part due to the confidence boost mentioned earlier) then it's very easy to spiral down into a cult of your own personality, where everything you do is right, and no one except the detractors, which are easy to paint as strawmen, are saying anything negative. Once you get to a certain level, people are afraid to be real (and to be fair, regarding self-interest, perhaps rightfully so), and when you have everyone telling you what you want to hear, you kinda lose the ability to be able to look at yourself clearly. You're stuck in an echo chamber.

This is just my understanding of the phenomenon. When an artist releases a subpar album or says something controversial, or a TV show releases a poorly-received episode, it's usually because nobody wanted to say anything. Not a lot of people in Kanye, or Zack Snyder, or Eminem or Christopher Nolan's circles are going to look them in the face and say "hey man, don't do this," unless it's some really foul, Jontron level shit. But it's just a pitfall of being popular. 

But even in jontron case no one told him no it seems. Like I've said in the past he used to be funny but after the upswing of becoming popular it seems he just doesn't care. But I suppose everyone needs or wants to have someone to follow in life

[Monkey Destruction Switch]

I'm not sure how inherently corruptive popularity actually is. You just never hear about the garbagey people who aren't popular, 'cause you know...they're not popular =P

I do agree about the potential for ego-boosting, though.