Idol worship is not necessarily a bad thing for teenagers as long as they look at it from a positive perspective and take into consideration how the star has achieved success, a pioneering study by the City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has concluded.
The study 'Turning Andy Lau from a star idol into a role model: An experimental study in Hong Kong and Shenzhen' aims to raise public concern about building a healthy environment for teenagers.
A total of 1,651 secondary school students from Hong Kong and 773 from Shenzhen took part in the study. Participants were divided into two groups.
One group heard about Andy Lau Tak-wah's glamorous lifestyle - his wealth, reputation and awards.
The other group was told about the pop star's achievements - his philosophy, the hard work he put into building his success, how he weathered the ups and downs in his life, and his personality.
The students who focused on his achievements showed significantly higher degrees of idol worship than the other group.
'This suggests that a star idol may be turned into a role model depending on how the idol is presented to young people,' said Dr Yue Xiaodong, associate professor of the applied social studies department at CityU and one of the researchers in this study.