TEiP HERTFORDSHIRE
FAME AND FORTUNE
By Sharda Dean
1 LOVE ISLAND
Sophie, Cara and Benji are watching Love Island.
Cara says, ’I’d love to be a contestant, I’m sure I could win it. Then I’d be rich and famous.’
Sophie says, ‘Hmm, wouldn’t you feel a bit of a fraud? After all, you haven’t really done anything of real value, you’ve just been on the telly, anyone can do that!’
Benji says, ‘But if Cara won Love Island she could use her money for good things, give to charity maybe, or start her own charity.’
Sophie says, ‘But wouldn’t you rather be famous for something worthwhile, I don’t know, curing cancer or winning the Nobel Prize, or doing great philanthropic works like Mother Teresa or fighting for people’s human rights. The important thing is what you did to deserve the recognition that fame brings.’
Cara says, ‘But I don’t think I’ve got any chance of winning a Nobel Prize. Love Island might be my only chance, and doesn’t everyone deserve to be rich?’
Benji says, ‘To be honest, Cara, I don’t think you’d ever win Love Island. You’re too nice. You’ve got to be a bit ruthless to be rich and famous.’
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
When people want to be famous, what do you think they are really desiring… money, adoration, immortality or the recognition that they have done something unique or particularly noteworthy?
If you were famous for something that was partly luck, how would you feel about your fame?
Benji says, ‘You’ve got to be a bit ruthless to be rich and famous.’ To what extent do you agree?
Do you think film, TV and social media have made it easier for people to become famous?
Has contemporary celebrity culture changed our view of fame or the famous?
Robert K Merton coined ‘the Matthew Effect’ to describe the way that someone who is successful in one area, is often able to be successful in another adjacent area. Fame allows them to access resources and opportunities that make it more likely that they will be successful in connected careers. Can you think of any examples of this in real life? How do you feel about this phenomenon?
Sometimes people become well known for negative reasons. How do you think this affects their experience of fame?
If you could be very famous and not rich, or very rich and not famous, which would you choose and why?
Thought Experiment by: Sharda Dean
2 DOES MONEY BUY HAPPINESS?
There is a large body of research on income and happiness with some interesting findings to discuss.
According to many studies, a higher income will increase someone’s happiness. You may agree or disagree. There has also been some dispute as to whether there is a limit to this effect. After all, once your basic needs are met, food, housing, warmth… how much happier can extra income make you? Earlier studies (for example a 2010 paper by Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton) found that emotional wellbeing increased up to a certain income and then did not improve as income increased beyond that.
However, later studies disputed this finding. In 2013, Stevenson and Wolfers showed that happiness continued to rise even after basic needs had been met, though at a slower pace. In 2023, however, another study showed that whether increases in income increased your happiness was much more to do with how happy you were in the first place. The happiest people continued to see improvements in their happiness as their income grew, whereas those who were less happy in the first instance did not experience as big an increase in happiness as a result of their higher income. This suggests that extra money won’t make us happier unless we’re already pretty happy!
Another finding from the research is that our happiness partly depends not our income relative to those around us. For example, if we receive an extra 10% of income, but no one else does, we may feel happier than if everyone gets a 10% pay rise.
Lastly, many academics studying happiness have looked at how what we spend our money on can impact our happiness. A substantial body of research suggests that experiences — holidays, concerts, meals with friends or learning something new — often produce more lasting satisfaction than material purchases. A study by Ashley Whillans and others in 2017, showed that people who spent money on time-saving services such as a cleaner or grocery delivery, reported greater life satisfaction than after a material purchase such as a new pair of shoes which is interesting with Christmas coming up and most of us unwrapping material purchases on Christmas morning. Perhaps, if we wanted to make someone happier, we should gift them an hour’s housework rather than a pair of slippers?
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
Academic studies suggest that higher income brings greater happiness, do you agree? Why or why not?
The studies quoted do not take into account the fact that you might need to work harder or take on more stress to earn a higher income, how might this change their conclusions?
TV dramas about the bizarre behaviour of the wealthy (eg ‘Succession’ or ‘The White Lotus’) tend to be popular. Why do you think this is?
Research suggests that if you received a 10% increase in your income, but no one else did, you would feel happier than if everyone got a 10% pay rise? Why do you think this might be the case?
Do you agree that spending money on experiences or time saving activities rather than possessions brings greater happiness? Why? Might this change what you gift to people this Xmas?
Thinking about all the ways you spend money, which bring you greatest joy? Why?
Research suggests that if you are already happy, you gain more happiness from an increase in income than other people, why do you think this is the case?
Given your life experience, what do you think the secret to a happy life is?
Thought Experiment by: Sharda Dean
Additional sources:
Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton (2010) "High Income Improves Evaluation of Life but Not Emotional Well-Being", Center for Health and Well-being, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544.
Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers (2013) "Subjective Well-Being and Income: Is There Any Evidence of Satiation?", American Economic Review 103 (3): 598–604.
Robert H. Frank's (2005) “Does Money Buy Happiness?”, in Felicia A. Huppert, Nick Baylis, and Barry Keverne (eds), The Science of Well-Being (Oxford, 2005; online edn, Oxford Academic, 22 Mar. 2012), https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198567523.003.0018.
Ashley V. Whillans et al. (2017) “Buying Time Promotes Happiness”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America vol. 114,32 (2017): 8523-8527. doi:10.1073/pnas.1706541114.
3 MARLON, MARYLIN, & ZIGGY
Marlon Brando, the American actor and film director, claimed that when people become famous, the public ‘don’t relate to you but to the myth they think you are, and the myth is always wrong.’ According to Brando, this experience negatively affected his private life and personal relationships.
Like Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe seems to have struggled with the difference between her public persona and her real self. The following extracts from her last interview show some of the problems she faced and her own perspective on fame.
She said, “…when you're famous you kind of run into human nature in a raw kind of way. It stirs up envy, fame does… They feel fame gives them some kind of privilege to walk up to you and say anything to you… One time here I am looking for a home to buy and I stopped at this place. A man came out and was very pleasant and cheerful, and said, "Oh, just a moment, I want my wife to meet you." Well, she came out and said, "Will you please get off the premises?" You're always running into people's unconscious.”
“Fame has a special burden… I don't mind being burdened with being glamorous and sexual. But what goes with it can be a burden… That's the trouble, a sex symbol becomes a thing. I just hate to be a thing.”
“…sometimes I'm invited places to kind of brighten up a dinner table like a musician who'll play the piano after dinner, and I know you're not really invited for yourself. You're just an ornament.”
“Fame will go by, I've always known it was fickle. So at least it's something I experienced, but that's not where I live.”
Celebrities such as Kate Moss, Sinead O’Connor, Lily Allen and Beyonce, amongst others, have all reported feeling a similar sense of alienation from their public personas. However, other celebrities report that a division between their public persona and their authentic self is an essential mechanism to cope with the emotional pressures of fame, as they do not identify fully with their public persona who is the one going through the ups and downs of fame. Their real self is therefore protected from the worst parts of being a celebrity.
Other celebrities explore the tension between private and public personas in their art or music, adopting different public personas throughout their careers, eg David Bowie, Prince and Madonna created alter egos for different phases of their careers (Bowie even had different names for these personas, Ziggy Stardust, Alladin Sane etc). These personas allowed these artists to constantly reinvent themselves and to be more creative, exploring different musical styles at different times without being tied to the limits of one role.
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
Famous people often feel a sense of alienation from their public persona. Why do you think this happens?
A sense of alienation may come about when someone’s public persona feels different to their real or authentic self. But we all present a public or professional face to the world at times that might be different to how we are in reality. Are there times or situations when you do not feel your authentic self? Under what circumstances?
Marilyn Monroe was an exceptional actress however, she became famous for being a ‘sex symbol’, why do you think that was?
Do you think famous women have a different experience of fame than famous men? What are the differences?
What do you think Marilyn Monroe meant when she said that fame meant that “You’re always running into people’s unconscious.”
In your view, does fame stirs up envy? How does that envy show up in the way famous people are treated on social or traditional media, by fans or by the general public?
Marilyn Monroe struggled at various times with her mental health as many other famous people have done. Do you think there is a link between fame and difficulties with mental health? If so, what do you think the link is?
What do you think of the David Bowie, Prince or Madonna approach to fame – creating different alter egos that protect their authentic selves from the worst parts of fame and allowed them to use the tension between public and private in a creative way? Another approach, not discussed above, is to move your public persona closer to your private one, to be more authentic… if you were famous which approach would you prefer?
Thought Experiment by: Sharda Dean
Additional sources:
Archer, A. and Robb, C.M. (2023) ‘Being a Celebrity: Alienation, Integrity, and the Uncanny’, Journal of the American Philosophical Association, 9(4), pp. 597–615. doi:10.1017/apa.2022.28.
Extracts from an edited version of Last Talk With a Lonely Girl: Marilyn Monroe by Richard Meryman, first published in Life magazine, August 17 1962. Republished by The Guardian on 14 September 2007. https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2007/sep/14/greatinterviews
THE AUTHOR OF TONIGHT’S THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS
Sharda Dean is an economist, wedding celebrant and community builder who lives in Potters Bar in Hertfordshire.
She runs ‘Thought Experiments in Pubs (TEiP) - Hertfordshire’, part of the THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS IN PUBLIC (TEiP) network founded by Bonny Astor.
Sharda has been an active and valued member of the TEiP London community since 2025 and has contributed original thought experiments to London events.
In writing thought experiments, Sharda draws inspiration from all the love, loss, joy, heartbreak and the occasional bout of rage she has experienced in her 50+ years. She also reads widely, listens to a lot of Radio 4, has three sons and three degrees in economics.
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