Parasocial Relationships

• Celebrity

  A person with a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination - usually prominent in a particular field
• parasocial relationships

  one sided relationships with celebrities
• why might parasocial relationships be appealing?

  they make few demands so there is no risk of rejection
• individual differences in parasocial relationships

  age - peak age is 11-17

  gender - men are more likely to have PR’s with sports stars and women are more likely to have PR’s with entertainment stars

  education - there is a negative correlation between education level and intensity of celebrity worship
• Giles & Maltby’s levels of parasocial relationships

  entertainment-social level - least intense, celebrities are seen as a source of entertainment

  intense-personal level - more intense, may see the celebrity as a soulmate and have an interest in their personal life

  borderline pathological level - most intense, uncontrollable fantasies about the celebrity, spends large amounts of money on merch, may engage in illegal activities such as stalking
• what have scores on the celebrity attitude scale been correlated with?

  depression, anxiety, eating disorders, body dysmorphia
• absorption addiction model (McCutcheon 2007)

  suggests that people engage in celebrity worship to compensate for deficiencies in their life such as low self esteem and lack of identity - it allows them to achieve fulfilment they lack in everyday life
• absorption

  a person focuses intensely on their parasocial relationship and allows them to achieve a sense of fulfilment, fuelling their attachment
• addiction

  the sense of fulfilment becomes addictive, leading to more extreme behaviours
• Aruguete et al (2024)

  investigated the absorption addiction model

  • 399 ppts completed an online questionnaire measuring attraction to their favourite celebrity
  • found that a sense of emptiness and extremism was positively correlated with celebrity attraction

  conclusion - findings support the absorption addiction model
• attachment theory explanation

  attempts to use Bowlby’s and Ainsworth’s theories to explain celebrity attachment
• Bowlby’s theory

  predicts that people who didn’t form a strong attachment in early childhood try to find an attachment substitute - parasocial relationships allow them to do that
• Ainworth’s theory

  people with an insecure-resistant attachment are more likely to form parasocial relationships
• Cole & Leets (1999)

  investigated relationship between attachment style and parasocial relationships

  • 115 undergraduates completed a questionnaire on parasocial relationships
  • ppts with an insecure-resistant attachment style were more likely to develop such relationships

  supports the attachment explanation
• Kienlen et al (1997)

  Found that 63% of stalkers experienced a loss of a caregiver in early childhood, and 50% experienced emotional and physical abuse
• McCutcheon et al (2006)

  tested attachment theory explanation of parasocial relationships

  • 299 students completed the celebrity attitudes scale and a questionnaire about attachment style
  • findings: no association between attachment style and parasocial relationships but people with an insecure-resistant attachment were more likely to approve of stalking behaviours
• positive evaluation of parasocial relationships

  real world applications - Maltby et al found that 14-16 year old girls with parasocial relationships had poor body image -> can improve professionals’ understanding of psychological disorders

  
  

  lack of cultural bias - celebrity worship seems to be a universal phenomenon: Schmid & Klimmt found similar levels of worship in individualist and collectivist cultures
• Negative evaluation of parasocial relationships

  Correlational - cause and effect cannot be clearly established, e.g. celebrity worship may not cause poor body image

  Self reports - relies on interviews and questionnaires so ppts may give socially desirable answers: responding in a way that reflects them in a better light rather than being truthful