It turns out there is real research behind exactly this pull, and it says a lot less about anyone’s character than the guilt suggests. Why It Works Even for People We’ll Never MeetNone of that fully explains why a stranger’s life halfway across the world triggers the same instinct, but brain imaging research offers a clue. Celebrities end up functioning as a kind of oversized social circle the mind tracks using the exact same machinery built for a small tribe. It does mean the itch to check on somebody else’s life is essentially constant, which makes the rare moment with absolutely no social information in it, nobody’s rise, fall, breakup, or feud attached, feel like an actual break rather than more of the same. A short game with nothing to compare and nobody to track is a nice contrast to a feed built entirely around exactly that, even for five minutes between headlines.