The deaths of public figures produce a variety of emotional reactions. While bereavement research has explored mourning family or close friends, this literature does little to address grieving public figures. Similarly, research on how people relate to public figures provides an incomplete picture of the associations possible. This study relies on interviews with people who had a memorable reaction to the death of a public figure to explore how these individuals related to that figure. Results indicate two primary reactions: Grief (disruption and sharp pain) and Melancholy (distraction and dull ache). Respondents reported symbolic associations between the figure and some meaning they had incorporated into their distributed cognitive framework. I argue that emotional reactions to the death of a public figure are an affective signal of disruption to the individual's cognitive functioning caused by the loss of meaning maintained by the figure as a material cultural symbol. The variations in kind and intensity of reaction are related to the cognitive function and cognitive salience of the lost meaning, respectively. This research highlights how individuals can rely on public figures as cultural objects that support and augment their meaning-making process.

公众人物的死亡会产生各种情感反应。丧亲研究探索了哀悼家人或亲密朋友的故事，但这些文献对解决悲伤的公众人物没有多大作用。同样，有关人与公众人物的关系的研究也提供了可能存在的联想的不完整图景。这项研究依赖于对一个公众人物的死亡有令人难忘的反应的人的访谈，以探讨这些人与该人物的关系。结果表明有两个主要反应：悲伤（干扰和剧烈疼痛）和忧郁（干扰和钝痛）。受访者报告了该数字与他们已纳入其分布式认知框架的某些含义之间的符号关联。我认为，对公众人物死亡的情感反应是由于人物作为物质文化象征而失去的意义而造成的对个人认知功能的破坏的情感信号。反应种类和强度的变化分别与失去意义的认知功能和认知显着性有关。这项研究突出了个人如何依靠公众人物作为支持和增强其意义形成过程的文化客体。