Key Takeaways
- Parasocial relationships are one-sided connections people form with media figures like celebrities or fictional characters.
- These relationships can provide comfort and inspiration but might also interfere with real-world relationships if they become too intense.
- Parasocial interactions happen during media consumption, while parasocial relationships extend beyond and impact daily thoughts and feelings.
In a time when celebrities, social media influencers, and famous personalities seem like they are just a click away, it’s easy to understand how emotional bonds with public figures have become more personal and complex than ever. This type of one-sided connection is known as a parasocial relationship. Such relationships blur the line between admiration and perceived intimacy between a media user and a public figure.
Media users can form parasocial relationships with celebrities, live-action fictional characters, social media influencers, animated characters, and any other figure they encounter through media, including movies, TV shows, podcasts, radio talk shows, or social media platforms, such as Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok.
While research on parasocial relationships typically focuses on friendship-like bonds between a media user and a favored media persona, media users may also form negative and even romantic parasocial relationships with different media figures.
History of Parasocial Relationships
Donald Horton and R. Richard Wohl originated the concept of parasocial relationships in 1956, when they published their seminal article “Mass Communication and Para-Social Interaction: Observations on Intimacy at a Distance” in the journal Psychiatry.
Types of Parasocial Relationships
Not all parasocial relationships are the same. They can occur in many different contexts and may take different forms depending on the public figure’s persona and the viewer’s emotional needs. For example, such relationships can range from enjoying the comforting experience of watching a favorite character in a TV show to having an intense devotion to a pop idol or fictional book character.
Parasocial relationships can exist in several different forms. Oftentimes, these various forms may represent stages of this type of relationship:
Parasocial Interactions
Parsocial interactions are defined as the approximation of “conversational give and take” between a media user and a media persona. Unlike parasocial relationships, which extend beyond a single media interaction and psychologically operate much like a real-life relationship, parasocial interactions take place exclusively while interacting with a persona via media and psychologically resemble real-life face-to-face interactions.
For example, if you feel like you’re one of the gang while watching the characters from Friends spend time together at the Central Perk, you’re experiencing a parasocial interaction. If you continue to think about Rachel, Chandler, Monica, or one of the other members of the group after you’ve finished the episode, maybe even reference their behavior on the show as if they are someone you know, you’ve formed a parasocial relationship with that Friends character.
Parasocial Interactions vs. Parasocial Relationships
Despite the differences between these concepts, scholars often used the ideas of parasocial interactions and parasocial relationships interchangeably, leading to confusion in the research literature. More recently, however, scholars have concluded that although parasocial interaction and parasocial relationships are related, they are distinct concepts.
Parasocial Attachments
In addition, the concept of parasocial connections has been extended by media psychologist Gayle Stever to include parasocial attachments. Based on the theory of attachment originated by Bowlby, which describes the deep bonds formed between caregivers and children as well as between romantic partners, parasocial attachment happens when a media “persona becomes a source of comfort, felt security, and safe haven.”
Like parasocial interactions and relationships, parasocial attachments function similarly to attachments in real life. And just like real-life attachments, proximity seeking is an important component of parasocial attachments.
However, instead of direct interaction, the proximity in parasocial attachments is achieved through mediated means, such as watching and rewatching particular fictional characters in a movie or TV show, or keeping up with media personalities’ social media accounts.
Are They Healthy or Harmful?
Parasocial relationships can impact people in several ways. While such relationships are often dismissed as superficial or obsessive, the reality is a lot more nuanced. Just like any connection, the impact depends on factors like the context, intensity, and individual needs.
Some of these influences can be negative, but there can actually be some benefits to this type of relationship. Your favorite character or celebrity can be a source of comfort and inspiration, but sometimes such connections can cross boundaries and interfere with real-world relationships.
Potential Drawbacks
In one review of the literature, researchers found that having a parasocial relationship with a media personality can influence an individual’s:
- Political views
- Voting decisions
- Purchasing behavior
- Attitudes about gender stereotypes
- Trust in various groups of people, such as scientists and doctors
This influence may be positive or negative depending on whether the parasocial relationship with the media figure is positive or negative.
Potential Advantages
Parasocial relationships can certainly have drawbacks, but they may also have some benefits as well. On the plus side, these types of relationships are linked to.
- Increased belonging: On a more optimistic note, parasocial connections can increase self-confidence, improve one’s belief in their self-efficacy, and result in stronger feelings of belonging.
- Reduced loneliness: The isolation caused by quarantine orders issued during the COVID-19 pandemic has increased interest in the social surrogacy role media figures can play. Although the research on this topic is limited, people who didn’t have other social outlets while in lockdown turned to TV and movie characters and online social media to satisfy their need for interaction and connection.
- Stronger social connections: Because friends and family can engage in parasocial relationships with the same media persona without jealousy, discussing these mutual parasocial relationships can strengthen social relationships. Fans also often create online or in-person communities dedicated to specific performers, characters, and other media figures, which can contribute to real-life relationships with like-minded others.
How Do Parasocial Relationships Form?
Like in-person relationships, parasocial relationships start when someone meets and gets acquainted with a media persona. This initial parasocial interaction might involve seeing the individual on a tv show or movie, following them on social media, or even interacting with them online or in real life.
If the persona makes an impression that causes the individual to think about them beyond the interaction, parasocial interactions can lead to a parasocial relationship. In turn, further parasocial interactions can strengthen parasocial relationships, sometimes leading to parasocial attachment.
Moreover, if the parasocial relationship ends, either because the media figure dies, the show or movie series they appear in ends, or the media user decides they no longer wish to engage with the media persona, the media user can go through a parasocial breakup.
One study found that many fans of the show Neighbors experienced feelings of grief and loss when the series ended. Another study that examined Reddit posts found that many sports fans experienced emotional and mental grief responses following the death of Kobe Bryant.
Why Do We Form Them?
It may seem strange that people form parasocial relationships despite their lack of reciprocity, but it’s important to remember that humans are evolutionarily wired to make social connections. Media is a relatively recent development in human history and hasn’t yet had an outsized impact on our evolution.
Humans tend to pay special attention to other humans’ faces and voices. For centuries, the only faces and voices we regularly encountered were those of the people in our daily lives. That changed starting in the early 20th century with the advent of radio and movies, and by the time television became widely available, the number of faces and voices one could become familiar with through media had grown exponentially.
However, our brains never evolved to distinguish between people we see and hear through media and those we see and hear in real life. Therefore, we process and respond to these encounters similarly, leading to parasocial phenomena in all their forms.
While psychological research has sometimes attempted to pathologize parasocial relationships, most scholars now agree that engaging in parasocial connections is normal. It is something that a majority of people experience.
It is also important to note that most people know that their relationships with media figures are not real. However, this knowledge doesn’t prevent them from reacting as if they were.
The Role of Social Media
To date, the majority of studies on parasocial phenomena has focused on film and TV, while new media has been the focus of less than one-fifth of the investigations.
Nonetheless, new media, especially social media, has surely changed the nature of parasocial relationships. Of particular interest is whether the ability to directly communicate and possibly be contacted by a media figure online might make parasocial relationships more social.
For example, if a fan exchanges direct messages with their favorite actor via Twitter, the relationship takes on a social dimension.
The Social-Parasocial Continuum
As a result, researchers have proposed that parasocial and social relationships should be seen as operating along a continuum.
- On the social end of the spectrum are the people we regularly interact with in our daily lives.
- On the parasocial end of the spectrum are media personalities we have no access to, such as fictional characters or performers who have passed away.
- In between those two extremes are relationships with celebrities that one has the potential to interact with either in real-life or online.
This can take the form of meeting a pop star after their concert or running into an actor while out shopping in Hollywood. However, the rise of social media has increased the likelihood that fans can gain access to their favorite celebrities online.
For example, when a media user responds to a post by their favorite performer on Twitter, the performer may acknowledge them by liking or re-tweeting their message. Scholars have proposed that in these circumstances the relationship between fan and performer should still be considered parasocial because despite the social recognition by the media figure, the media user still lacks direct access to them.
