Humans care about celebrities, and with the 2024 United States Presidential election approaching, celebrities have begun to endorse the presidential candidates.
Taylor Swift took to social media to endorse the Harris/Walz campaign, which also led to 400,000 new voter registrations. However, social media buzzed once her endorsement hit the airwaves. Some news outlets claimed Swift saw a bump of 1.8 million monthly listeners on Spotify shortly after, while other ones stated that she lost 2 million monthly listeners. The public both commended her and was upset about her voicing her opinion.
Celebrities in Politics
This is the nature of being in the public’s eye, and criticism is nothing new to celebrities like Swift, especially when it comes to politics.
For example, Zachary Levi recently endorsed the Trump/Vance campaign, to which he said, “Could very well constitute career suicide.” His endorsement was met with stark criticisms from the public and celebrities like Whoopi Goldberg.
She said, “Very few people seem to bite it because they’re Republican.”
“It’s unnecessary,” she said, in reference to Levi’s comment.
By these comments and endorsements making headlines, it’s clear that the public remains enthralled with celebrity. But why?
Why Do We Care?
According to Dr Paul Harrison, an expert in consumer behavior and culture, “It’s all about fitting in, perhaps being a bit better. We believe that if we follow those with success, some form of authority or a sense of power, we set ourselves on the right path.”
We want to be like them, and in turn, want them to reflect the same values that we hold dear. When this happens we may feel validated, and when this doesn’t happen we may feel hurt or wronged by these people whom we’ve never met.
This begs the question, should we care about celebrities’ political views?
What the People Say
A Hill-HarrisX study conducted in 2019 showed that 24% of Americans said that celebrity endorsements make them less likely to vote for the celebrity’ preferred candidate.
Only 11% said that an endorsement would make them more likely to vote for a particular candidate.
The remaining 65% of Americans said that celebrity endorsements do not impact who they choose to vote for.
Whether or not one cares about the politics of a celebrity remains a personal choice, but it seems that more Americans are making the choice to not let the opinions of public figures sway them.
Let us know what you think about celebrities in politics @VALLEYmag on X and all other social media platforms.
