Angelina Jolie, Kylie Minogue, and David Beckham are great role models, even better perhaps than William Shakespeare, Isaac Newton, and Winston Churchill, research says.
The new study that has been performed at the University of Leicester's department of media and communication has found out that history's greats are less significant to today's youth than the American actress, Australian singer, or the English footballer.
The high publicity of these celebrities makes them the ideal teachers for the young. Dr. Charlotte de Backer says.
"Life is about learning, gaining experience and in that process we have a tendency to observe and mimic the actions of others. Ideally, we mimic what makes the others successful and avoice unsuccessful actions others have tried (and paid for).
"In reality, humans seem to have the tendency to mimic the overall behavior they display - good or bad."
The study of 800 respondents also found out that older people are interested in celebrities for purely social reasons rather than real interest in the celebrities' tabloid run-ins.
"We did find in the interviews that older people do not gossip about celebrities as much because they want to learn from them or feel befriended with them, but they use celebrity gossip to bond with real-life friends and acquaintances," she added.
"Living in scattered societies we often don't know who to talk about with many people we know and celebrities can act as our mutual friends and acquaintances."
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