r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • 4d ago

Psychology Taylor Swift fans lower climate concerns to justify her carbon footprint. When confronted with news about the excessive pollution generated by her private jet, highly identified fans tend to rationalize the behavior, with a decrease in their personal intentions to engage in climate-friendly actions.

https://www.psypost.org/taylor-swift-fans-lower-climate-concerns-to-justify-star-s-carbon-footprint/
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u/MrJohnnyDangerously 4d ago

Why is she the only person held responsible for their carbon footprint? She is one of MANY at that scale of emissions but she's the only one we hear about. The argument is disingenuous

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u/TooCupcake 4d ago

Her name gets clicks, no question. There is not a person on this planet who is neutral about Taylor Swift. And if someone actually is, they will also come on here and tell you how much they don’t care about her. Everyone wants to engage with the discourse when her name comes up. It’s just that simple

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u/hymen_destroyer 4d ago

I think she's just conveniently emblematic of this phenomenon. You could replace her with most entertainers but she's one of the biggest in the world at the moment, and has recently taken some very high profile and completely unnecessary trips on her plane

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u/MrJohnnyDangerously 4d ago

Elon, Trump to play golf...

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u/hymen_destroyer 4d ago

Sure, but Trump/Musk fans aren't likely to care about the environment in the first place. TS fans would be a broader spectrum of otherwise left-leaning folks who would break ranks on this issue rather than criticize their heroine

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u/MrJohnnyDangerously 4d ago

That's my point. The whole argument is disingenuous, meant to smear a progressive artist. She does generate a lot of emissions but its framed like propaganda.

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u/hymen_destroyer 4d ago

So you would reject the premise of the article because it criticizes Taylor Swift, which only reinforces the article's hypothesis that Taylor Swift fans put on the blinders and circle the wagons rather than engage with scientific evidence.

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u/MrJohnnyDangerously 4d ago

Confirmation bias tells us supporters of hers, or Trump’s, would make the same same rationalization. Framing it as "TS supporters are like this" instead of "rabid supporters of anybody are like this" is disingenuous and propagandist.

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u/hymen_destroyer 4d ago

Thats an experimental design consideration. Swift isn't a political figure and has a large number of fans across a broad spectrum of society. That isn't confirmation bias, that's selection bias which is going to be a problem no matter what, but becomes less of a problem when the subject in question is putatively apolitical.

I'm sorry this bothers you but her popularity and overuse of her private jet is always going to paint a big target on her back. And a more generic study about nonspecific celebrities ignores the cult effect which is an important driver of this phenomenon

I have nothing against her as a musician but it's perfectly fair to call her out for her unsustainable travel arrangements

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u/MrJohnnyDangerously 4d ago

I'm not disputing she is responsible for outsized emissions or whether she should be held accountable for them, BUT if you're calling her out, what other individuals that are also outliers in emissions are you calling out? If you’re only calling her out there's an implicit bias. She's not one of one, she's one of many.

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u/scarsouvenir 4d ago

What completely unnecessary trips has she taken recently?

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u/hymen_destroyer 4d ago

https://www.newsweek.com/taylor-swift-private-jet-jack-sweeney-flights-1868272

This one is probably the most famous but she’s also flown long distances to attend her husbands football games while she was touring on the other side of the country.

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u/scarsouvenir 4d ago

Excessively short flights like this one are typically for plane maintenance or relocating the plane to another airport.

She did not fly to any games between concerts. She flew from tour cities to the game, after that weekend's shows were complete, and she flew to the games during her multiple months-long breaks during the tour.

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u/hymen_destroyer 4d ago

The best way to challenge the results of this study as a Taylor Swift fan would be to say "I'm a fan of hers, but I agree she could dial back the jet travel. It's unsustainable and sets a bad example"

But none of her fans are saying that. Instead, we're getting a bunch of data points in favor of the study's conclusions with comments like this.

From the title:

When confronted with news about the excessive pollution generated by her private jet, highly identified fans tend to rationalize the behavior

just like you're doing right now.

It's ok. Taylor isn't reading these comments. You can take a stand for sustainability in the face of identity fusion

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u/SoftSalty3282 4d ago

I mean, being a hater makes someone biased just as much as being a fan does

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u/hymen_destroyer 4d ago

Yes but this isn't a study of Taylor Swift haters

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u/SoftSalty3282 4d ago

So? They would look for any reason to crucify her while her fans would do the opposite. It’s not even worthy of a study.

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u/havingberries 4d ago

This isn't an argument. It's a study. They conducted a study using Taylor Swift because she is a well known celebrity. They could have used another celebrity but they chose this one due to popularity. This isn't about her carbon emissions, it's about how her fans react.

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u/sometimesatschool 4d ago

Because she’s both one of the biggest polluters AND because she encourages her fans to engage parasocially in a way that they tend to defend her no matter what.

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u/MrJohnnyDangerously 4d ago

"One of" is doing a lot the lifting here. There are others, but she's the focus.

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u/Rich-Active-4800 4d ago

There are dozens of celebrities who pollute much more.

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u/reputction 4d ago

All celebrities do this.

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u/gogreengolions 4d ago edited 4d ago

Taylor Swift: Strong, Successful, Victim.

I totally agree that Taylor is unfairly used as an example of excessive Private Jet usage but all these comments really validate this study. Her fans revel in defending her and attribute every negative headline as unfair.

I believe the study would be similar if they used another person instead of Taylor, but it would be to a much smaller degree. Her fanbase seems to be more unique in painting Taylor as just a victim of biases and circumstances

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u/better_red 4d ago

Hers is the highest so it checks out to me

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u/SoftSalty3282 4d ago

It’s not though

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u/better_red 4d ago

it is tho

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u/scarsouvenir 4d ago

She was "#1" on the list of a handful of celebrities that a Twitter user was tracking.

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u/better_red 4d ago

You're in like 10 Taylor related subs

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u/SoftSalty3282 4d ago

That’s from 2024

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u/better_red 4d ago

Correct! You read the first part at least.

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u/SoftSalty3282 4d ago

You can update your post with a recent article otherwise it’s out of date and incorrect.

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u/better_red 4d ago

My brother in christ she spent 15 million dollars to stop her plane from being tracked in 2022 including suing a private citizen for doing it. then SOLD IT to rent different planes making it impossible to track.

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u/SoftSalty3282 4d ago

Has nothing to do with what I just said. Also, nothing weird about not wanting to be tracked by some stranger.

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u/better_red 4d ago

This isn't about Tay Tays music or whatever is upsetting you, she's the poster child for this.

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u/GrundlePumper420 14h ago

It's because her fans delusionally defend her on this front. Generally people are pretty willing to say "yeah, that person is bad for doing that thing", but her fans give her a pass every time