Idolatry And Delay Discounting:The Effects Of Future Orientation And Self-control

Idolatry is an individual’s social identity and emotional attachment to his favorite characters,which is called "secondary emotional dependence" in psychology.At this stage of development from adolescence to early adulthood,the emotional attachment to the parent is weakened and the individual seeks to bond with someone who is socially distant but psychologically intimate,an idol.Worship ensued.Psychologists generally tend to explain idolatry behavior from a developmental perspective,believing that it is a common phenomenon in the process of individual development and will decline with the maturity of psychological development.However,some teenagers will also have cognitive biases,blindly or even madly chasing their idols,showing obvious short-sighted tendencies in their explicit behavior.By observing the current domestic idol worship groups,we found that many fans spent all their time and energy in chasing stars in the process of chasing their idols in order to support their "idol".Theoretical research shows that Such fans were desperate to satisfy their psychological needs to be close to their idols at that time.Although there is a lot of evidence that idol worshipers may be more short-sighted,some domestic scholars believe that the adverse effects of idol worship will only appear in idol worshipers who are obsessed with idols,and for mild idol worshipers.Not only will they not be short-sighted because of this,but they will focus more on long-term goals in the future because they use idols as role models for learning and growth.This paper focuses on the question "Does idol worship make individuals form shortsighted behavior patterns?",through two studies to explore,to provide reference for the future cultural governance of fan circles and idol worship behavior guidance.Study 1 used the questionnaire method to investigate the current status of idol worship among young students by randomly distributing questionnaires,and to explore the influence of idol worship on individuals’ tendency to delay choice tasks.The results show that the idol worship level of young students in my country is currently at a reasonable and healthy level,idol worship can positively predict the individual’s delay option ratio in the delay discount task,and future orientation plays a partial mediating role（mediating effect size: 25.682 %）,while there is a negative correlation between self-control and idolatry.This shows that idolatry is a beneficial and detrimental behavior,and its relationship with individual short-sighted behavior is not the same as what we observe in our daily life.Study 2 adopted a single-factor between-subjects design,divided the idol-worshiping crowd into an idol-worshiping situation priming group and a control group by different manipulation methods,and tested the priming effectiveness through oral reports.differences in tasks.The results showed that compared to the control group,the priming group was more inclined to the delay option in the delay discounting task,showing a more forward-looking behavior pattern.This shows that on the basis that the idol worshiping individuals obtained in Study 1 are more focused on the future,it can be further concluded that this effect will be more obvious when it is specific to the star-chasing situation.（1）In general,the following conclusions are obtained through this study:（1）Idol worship is a very common phenomenon among young students in my country,and it is mainly manifested in the two dimensions of "identity" and "attachment" On the whole,it is at a healthy level of mild idolatry.（2）The idolatrous crowd is not synonymous with impulsive and irrational short-sighted behaviors,as in the public perception.On the contrary,individuals with higher idolatry levels show more calmness and rationality in the delayed discount task.future choice tendency.（3）Future orientation played a partial mediating role between idol worship and delayed discounting.（4）There is a negative correlation between idolatry and self-control,indicating that bad idolatry does exist and will manifest itself in the form of low self-control.（5）By comparing the performance differences between the priming group and the control group in the delay discount task in Study 2,it is found that the delayed option ratio of the priming group is significantly higher than that of the control group,indicating that there are situational differences in the influence of idol worship on individuals’ delayed choice behavior.（6）Men and women do have objective differences in idolatry.Generally speaking,women show more idolatry than men,and women have a higher degree of idolatry.This difference is mainly reflected in the "idealization" ” and “romanticization”.However,there is no clear evidence from this study to support the idea that such objective differences lead to adverse outcomes.