Computer helps to rate top celebrities
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Forget the A list, the B list and the C list. Scientists have invented a new way of rating celebrities - using a mathematical formula that ranks them according to selling power.
The new formula can be used by businesses to rate the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements. The brainchild of a US academic, it helps advertisers to decide if Beckham is better than Connery, or Hurley superior to Madonna, in helping to shift a product.
"Choosing a celebrity as an endorser for your product simply because they are the flavour of the month is risky and decidedly unwise," says Dr Cynthia Knott, inventor of the new celebrity formula. "A more precise indicator of effectiveness is needed because it is imperative that corporations make wise choices when deciding on a spokesperson for their product or service.''
As many as one in five TV commercials use celebrity endorsements, which can be extremely expensive - not only in the cost of hiring the celebrity, but also in how the celebrity can affect the image of the advertiser.
The formula - using matrix algebra, eigenvectors and pairwise comparisons - that she and fellow researchers at George Washington University have created is based on rating each celebrity for a number of qualities: credibility, attractiveness, trustworthiness, expertise, likeability and familiarity.
The ratings on each of the traits are fed into a computer program, which comes up with the name of the best celebrity endorser.
When The Independent on Sunday fed the names into the computer, Sean Connery came out on top followed closely by David Beckham.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments