Deadline recently ran the headline \u201cGuillermo Rodriguez is finally getting his moment\u201d. The Jimmy Kimmel sidekick, dancing with pro partner Witney Carson, has been the unexpected hit of the current season of Dancing With The Stars. Why all of a sudden are so many people Guillermo fans? A psychological phenomenon called \u2018BIRG\u2019 may be part of the answer.<\/p>\n
The Appeal of the Underdog<\/p>\n
Rodriguez\u2019 appeal is not new \u2013 he became a \u201ccelebrity\u201d when he went from quirky security guard to quirky onstage sidekick for Jimmy Kimmel, so he already had a fan base. Fans have appreciated his ability not to take himself too seriously and to \u201cbe himself\u201d. Guillermo seems real at a time when we are all struggling to figure out what\u2019s not real on a daily basis, making authenticity<\/a> important.<\/p>\n He is also willing to be vulnerable in admitting when he\u2019s not that good at something. The comments on the Deadline article included appreciation for his lack of pretense, one stating \u201cThe world needs more Guillermos and especially now!\u201d Guillermo\u2019s initial success in spite of an admitted lack of dancing prowess may have only made him more appealing to many fans. (He pulled open his shirt after one dance to reveal \u201cDancing 4 The People\u201d written on his chest as an acknowledgement that it\u2019s the fans\u2019 passion and not his dancing skills that are responsible.) At a time when many people are feeling like it\u2019s harder and harder to succeed in an increasingly stressful<\/a> world, watching the underdog persevere and make it to the next episode has inspired many viewers.<\/p>\n Success Feels Good, Even When It\u2019s Not Ours<\/p>\n Still, Rodriguez\u2019 continuing success was unexpected, since the other dancers are more skilled. What explains the outpouring of support that\u2019s keeping him on the show?<\/p>\n One explanation is simply that he IS successful, leading to others hoping to vicariously experience that success. There\u2019s a psychological phenomenon that explains that called \u201cBasking in reflected glory\u201d or \u201cBIRG\u201d. BIRG is a term coined by social psychologist Robert Cialdini in the 70s to describe that feeling fans experience when their favorite wins \u2013 a rush of emotion<\/a> that feels like they have won too even when they played no part at all in that success. <\/p>\n Cialdini found that proclaiming yourself a fan of someone who\u2019s on a winning streak, like Guillermo is right now, enhances the fan\u2019s positive image and self esteem. BIRG is a form of impression management<\/a>, something we all do to show off our best qualities and create a positive public image, in this case by emphasizing a connection to a successful person.<\/p>\n The BIRG phenomenon is responsible for the proliferation of everything from tee shirts to bumper stickers to celebrity-inspired hair styles that announce that someone is a fan of a celebrity or team that\u2019s having a moment. When that person or team is winning, everyone wants to be their fan. In fact, so many fans are \u201cbasking in the reflected glory\u201d of Guillermo\u2019s initial success that they have continued voting in large enough numbers to keep him in the competition<\/a>. Even the show\u2019s judges seem to be BIRGing. \u201cJust like everybody else,\u201d judge Derek Hough said, \u201cI\u2019m obsessed with you.\u201d Bruno Tonioli added, \u201cI understand why you\u2019re becoming a national obsession.\u201d<\/p>\n The show\u2019s official Instagram<\/a> posted \u201cWe couldn\u2019t be more obsessed with Guillermo and Witney\u2019s Samba\u201d after the most recent episode aired. In spite of very low scores from the judges (a 13 out of 30 for that Samba), so many fans voted for Rodriguez and Carson that they will be returning once again.<\/p>\n The Flip Side of BIRG<\/p>\n Of course, the opposite is also true. Identifying so strongly with a celebrity or band or sports team that you experience a vicarious sense of success when they are \u201cwinning\u201d means that when they are not winning, that can be painful. Research shows that fans try to distance themselves from those failures by \u201ccutting<\/a> off reflected failure\u201d or \u201cCORFing\u201d. In other words, it\u2019s \u201cwe won\u201d but \u201cthey lost\u201d. As difficult as that might be for a celebrity to swallow, for fans that strategy protects their self esteem and positive self image<\/a>. <\/p>\n It also means that wanting to avoid those painful feelings leaves fans highly motivated to keep their favorites winning \u2013 and to sometimes attack anyone who might be perceived as a threat to that success. Other DWTS contestants have their own fans, and some of those fans worry that their favorites will be sent home so Guillermo can stay. There have been accusations of the show being rigged to try to prevent that outcome, with viewers posting on the show\u2019s Instagram that \u201cHe needs to go home, that is not dancing!!!\u201d<\/p>\n But Guillermo fans show no signs of giving up, voting in large numbers to keep his success \u2013 and their basking in his reflected glory \u2013 going a while longer. All the way to the mirror ball? I guess we\u2019ll see just how compelling BIRG can be!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Deadline recently ran the headline \u201cGuillermo Rodriguez is finally getting his moment\u201d. The Jimmy Kimmel sidekick, dancing with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":797548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-797547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}