makes me question.             .           .

By now, you likely know that Prince William and Kate Middleton had their third child, Louis, who joins older siblings George and Charlotte. You likely also know that Prince Harry is set to marry American actor Meghan Markle next month. Perhaps you even know that the royal wedding will be held at St. George’s Chapel, and will include a lemon- and elderflower-flavored cake and a teenage cellist.

In short: The royals have infiltrated our collective consciousness.

The question is, W     H     Y?

“We’re social animals,” says Dr. Frank Farley, a professor and psychologist at Temple University and a former American Psychological Association president. “With famous media figures, people we learn about, celebrities, et cetera, we often live some of our lives through them.”

Celebrities, in particular, may capture this sort of attention because they illustrate the things we’ve been taught to covet, however subconsciously. “We all have dreams of wealth and fame and happiness and style and social influence and so on, which starts early with fairy tales and the way we raise our kids,” Farley says, adding that it plays into our deep-seated attraction to heroism. “That stays with us, to some extent, through our lives. Royals and other people, like Hollywood figures and Kardashian types, keep that phenomenon alive.”

“We live in a media-saturated time,” Farley says. “In a sense, there’s no escape. Some people will become interested in the details.”

While social media has likely only exacerbated this effect, the concept of celebrity worship is a long-standing one. Lynn McCutcheon, editor of the North American Journal of Psychology, began researching the phenomenon in 2001, and since then more than 50 studies have been dedicated to the topic.

In McCutcheon’s seminal paper on celebrity worship, published in 2002 by the British Journal of Psychology, he and his colleagues sorted fans into four categories, based on their responses to a 23-point Celebrity Attitude Scale. Those on the lowest end of the spectrum, according to the research, merely watched or read about celebrities on their own. Those in the first category of true celebrity worship turned the activity into a social pursuit, sharing and discussing it with others. This type of behavior is usually harmless, McCutcheon says, and “most of the people that we call celebrity worshippers never get beyond this.”

Certain traits may predispose people to higher levels of celebrity worship, including anxiety, general irresponsibility and difficulty forming close relationships, McCutcheon says. (Loneliness and lower intelligence may also be related, albeit to a lesser extent.) Evidence also suggests that gambling addicts are more likely to be celebrity worshippers, McCutcheon says.

The media also plays a part. “All the latest media have contributed to [celebrity worship],” McCutcheon says. “It makes it easier for people to feel like they are really attached to somebody, other than a mere parasocial attachment.”

The language and history shared by the U.S. and the U.K. is important. “The very fact that [the monarchy] has continued [in Britain] is a curiosity for us: That’s the royal family we got rid of, in a sense,” Farley says.

But unlike in Farley’s native Canada — a former British colony where monarchical influence is still present, if largely symbolic — Americans, who “threw the bums out a long time ago,” are able to look back on this history purely with curiosity, he says. “You can view it as entertainment, an interesting story we’ve got going here” — especially now, as Markle, a divorced American and a woman of color, marries into the British monarchy.

“Life is hard, and becoming a success is difficult,” Farley says. “Look at these people: They inherited wealth, and social influence, and style, and fame, and they live this fairy tale life in castles — all the stuff that we grow up on.”

There’s nothing wrong with getting caught up in the details of a wedding you’ll never attend, or poring over pictures of the royal baby, McCutcheon says, so long as you keep perspective.          .          .

Interesting Word, huh:

P     E     R     S     P     E     C     T     I     V     E

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm of the DAY:

P          E          R          S           P          E          C          T          I          V          E

Just how is that we can pay so much attention

to people we don’t even know

but know of

and not the people 

we know of

and actually know.          .          .

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.          .          .

but we don’t have a

C           A           R           I           N        G

 (or lack thereof)

Problem in our World.          .          .

May their greatest memories

be those they’ve yet to create.          .          .

O     U     R  ‘  S,        T     O     O

We use to play it as kids

usually in the back seat of the car

on longer-than-we-ever-wanted-trips:

PLAY THE GAME

WHAT    WOULD     YOU     RATHER     BE:

RIch/Poor

Hot/Cold

Get bit by a poison snake/Get bit by a shark

Be Deaf/Be Blind.          .          .

The Game was endless

and it did pass the time.          .          .

The question about the S E N S E S

seemed to always be the hardest.          .          .

even now.          .          .

What’s   most   important   to   you:

To   be   Heard

or   to   be   Seen.          .          .

To  See

or   to   Hear?

Tough decision, huh.       .      .

hopefully one you’ll never have to make,

but maybe S C I E N C E

can help.          .          .

When it comes to understanding how someone truly feels, it may be best to close your eyes and just listen, a new study shows.

Empathy allows people to identify the emotions, thoughts and feelings of others. To do this, people tend to not only focus on the exchange of words, but also a person’s facial expressions and other nonverbal cues.

But a new study from the American Psychological Association suggests that you could be trying to do too much. In fact, relying on a combination of vocal and facial cues may not be the most effective method for understanding the emotions or intentions of others, the study said. [5 Ways Your Emotions Influence Your World (and Vice Versa)]

“Social and biological sciences over the years have demonstrated the profound desire of individuals to connect with others and the array of skills people possess to discern emotions or intentions,” study author Michael Kraus, an assistant professor of organizational behavior at Yale University, said in a statement. “But, in the presence of both will and skill, people often inaccurately perceive others’ emotions.”

The new research found that people who focus solely on listening to another person’s voice — including what the person says and vocal cues such as pitch, cadence, speed and volume — were able to better empathize with that individual.

In the study, the researchers examined how more than 1,800 individuals communicated with others. Some participants were askedto listen but not look at each other, while others were asked to look but not listen. And in some cases, the participants were allowed to both look and listen while communicating with one another.

In addition, some of the participants listened to a recorded interaction between two strangers that was read to them by a computerized voice lacking the usual emotional inflections of human communication.

On average, the study found participants were able to interpret the emotions of their partner more accurately when they just listened to the other person and didn’t focus on facial expressions. Furthermore, listening to the computerized voice proved to be the least effective for accurately recognizing emotion.