Persons who most impress gifted youth: a replication

A replication of a study of the persons who most impressed gifted youth was conducted with 95 students enrolled in a summer residential program for the gifted. Students were asked to indicate the person who most impressed them and to include the reason(s) for choosing that person. The most frequently chosen category of individuals was family members (61.1%), then a tie between persons in the world of arts and culture and persons doing a specific job (8.4%), another tie between comrades and sports stars (6.3%), followed by political or historical figures (4.2%), themselves (3.2%), and moral and religious personalities (2.1%). Consistent with the 1982 study by Karnes and Lee, most impressive to these students were family members and least impressive moral and religious personalities.