Parasocial relationships

• What are parasocial relationships?

  Relationships that resemble ‘normal relationships‘ but lack a key element - they are one sided, unreciprocated and usually with a celebrity.
• What do parasocial relationship involve?

  Fans investing a lot of energy, commitment and time.
• Parasocial relationships (Horton and Wohl’s definition)

  An attachment in which the fan knows all about the celebrity but the celebrity doesn’t know the fan even exists
• Parasocial relationships are not just based on celebrities, they could also be towards a team, organisation, brand or fictional character
• McCutcheon et al(2002)

  Developed the Celebrity Attitude Scale which was used in a large survey by Maltby et al. From this, three levels of parasocial relationships were identified, each level increasing in extremity.
• What are the three levels of parasociality?

  1. Entertainment-social
  2. Intense-personal
  3. Borderline pathological
• Entertainment-social


  Least intense level: celebrities are a source of entertainment, a fuel for social interaction e.g. friends who have a deep interest in soaps may discuss magazine stories about actors from EastEnders.

  Giles(2002) - these parasocial relationships are a fruitful source of gossip
• Intense-personal


  intermediate level: individual develops more personal involvement with the celebrity e.g. obsessive thoughts, intense feelings develop, believing you are soul-mates
• Borderline pathological


  Strongest level: uncontrollable fantasies and extreme behaviours are seen e.g. spending large amounts of money on celebrity related items, conducting illegal acts because the celebrity ‘said so’