In a country gorged with celebrity frenzy, a considerable amount of personal, and often times futile, gossip is vigorously shoved down Americans’ throats. It is gossip that, whether by choice or human nature, people often cannot help but judge.

One example of America’s celebrity hysteria occurred only a few weeks ago as Miley Cyrus’ Video Music Award performance made headlines. On the night of her controversial performance, Cyrus garnered more than 36,000 Twitter followers, according to nextbigsound.com.

Students judge prominent people because they are constantly in the media, said May Takeuchi, assistant professor of sociology and family studies.

“Only because we pay more attention to them, then both positive and negative news tends to be revealed to the whole entire public,” she said.

A more psychological role, such as our country’s economic state, may play a role in this growing American trend, Takeuchi said.

“We may be looking for somewhere to dump over feelings of frustration,” Takeuchi said. “When this person who is supposed to symbolize our society does commit some transgression, then of course we can use them as a target of our frustrations.”

When Congressman Anthony Weiner was caught in a sexting scandal he was unable to increase his popularity among voters. Weiner gained only 5 percent of the votes in the New York City mayoral race.

We look down on political figures for their transgressions because we hold them to a higher standard, Takeuchi said.

“Those political figures are expected to symbolize our society,” Takeuchi said. “When they don’t meet our expectations then they’ll get attacked.”

Americans judge political figures too harshly, student Justice Gilbert said.

“Especially since we live in the South, we’re in the ‘Bible Belt,’ and people see adultery as a really horrible thing,” Gilbert said. “We were raised to think that way.”

Freshman Darby Garrison said he has a different outlook on the matter.

“We look at (prominent figures) differently because we don’t know the full details,” Garrison said. “There might be a deeper conflict going on inside of that person and we might not accept it because that’s not how we live life.”

We look at notable figures differently after they share personal information because we’re not used to it, Garrison said.

“We’ve been so accustomed to them being a certain way, and then when we find out they’re another way it changes our whole perspective of that one person,” Garrison said.

When discussing prominent figures the question of why people care so much about their lives often comes up, Garrison said.

“They occupy higher positions,” Takeuchi said. “We want them to be symbols, symbols of America, symbols of our society.”

Radio and television have a large impact on our persistent interest in the lives of prominent figures, Gilbert said.

“We’re a big pop culture, media country so they [celebrities] have a big influence,” Gilbert said. “The majority of children grow up in front of (media) so those people are a part of their lives, whether they like it or not.”