Parasocial interactions refer to the illusionary feeling of interaction that occurs when media users feel personally addressed by a media persona, despite the one-sided and non-interactive nature of the communication. Parasocial relationships develop when users form feelings of friendship or intimacy towards media personas. Attachment style influences the likelihood of forming parasocial relationships, with insecure styles relating to stronger relationships. Parasocial relationships can be beneficial but become problematic when they substitute for real social relationships or involve delusional beliefs about reciprocity.

1. Parasocial Interactions and
Parasocial Relationships
Dr. Ifra Iftikhar

2. Parasocial Phenomena
Parasocial interaction
Parasocial relationships

3. Parasocial Interaction
A parasocial interaction can be understood as a “simulacrum of
conversational give-and-take” that takes place during a media-exposure
situation between users and a media character, e.g., a TV host.
A parasocial interaction is not identical to merely observing a character on a
screen rather, a parasocial interaction deals with users’ immediate
illusionary feeling of being in a real social interaction with a media
character, despite knowing that they are not .
Although, in a parasocial encounter communicational roles do not change
because the mediated other always maintains the role of the addresser and
users always the role of the addressee, users nevertheless experience the
encounter as “immediate, personal, and reciprocal.

4. Two Illusions
1. Illusion about social cognition
Taking media persona as a social being to which they, in turn,
respond socially.
1. A sense of co-presence and mutual awareness
Users intuitively feel personally addressed by the other (although
they are not, because the other addresses a mass audience), and
they experience the seemingly social encounter as reciprocal
(although it is not, because it is one-sided or non-interactive).

5. Parasocial Relationship
A parasocial relationship is actually one‐sided, similar to interpersonal
relationships, media personalities can use various means to help audience
members reduce uncertainty and foster a sense that people know and
understand each other.
Media personalities can employ a conversational style and gestures in
informal face‐to‐face settings, (direct addressing)which mirror interpersonal
communication. They use camera language to build noticeability.
Linkages of parasocial interaction with both affinity with the medium and
perceived realism of the content fuel the parasocial relationship

6. Parasocial relationships
Parasocial relationships conceptually differ from parasocial interaction.
A parasocial relationship can be understood as any social relationship users
develop towards characters they only know from the media.
Parasocial relationships can take various forms, reaching from extreme
worshipping, to normal romantic relationships and friendships, to more
negative relationships qualified by indifference or even antipathy towards
the mediated other.

7. Horton and Wohl (1956)
Empathy, perceived similarity, and attraction— evoke interpersonal
interaction.
People often see certain media personalities as a manner parallel to their
interpersonal friends.
A sense of intimacy and disclosure often follows from frequent and
consistent appearances by the media personality and regular and continuing
interaction.
Parasocial interaction is linked with selective, goal‐directed, instrumental
media use. Involved media users, not necessarily heavy consumers,

8. Horton and Wohl cont.
The formation of parasocial relationships benefits from the often regular,
reliable, and stereotypical appearance of mediated others.
For example, in contrast to potentially more unreliable and multi-layered real
friends, users may reliably encounter their favorite TV news host, who
always plays the same communicational role, at the same time of the day.

9. Parasocial Relationship PR
PR may be experienced as
▷ seeking guidance from a media persona
▷ seeing media personalities as friends
▷ imagining being part of a favorite program’s social world
▷ desiring to meet media performers
Parasocial interaction might compensate for less than satisfactory
interpersonal relationships, as those who are more involved in their media
relationships (e.g., talk‐radio callers, frequent online participants) might feel
more anxious about and less valued in their face‐to‐face interpersonal
relationships.

10. Attachment Style
An attachment style is an important personality characteristic rooted in
individuals’ early life experiences with their caregivers.
An attachment style defines how individuals feel about depending on others
in close relationships.
Attachment style is a determinant of parasocial relationships

11. 3 Attachment Styles
Three attachment styles can be distinguished, based on the degree to which
people respond with anxiety or avoidance to close relationships.
Secure attachment style is typical for individuals who are optimistic about
close relationships and neither fear nor avoid them.
Avoidant attachment style tend to avoid intimate relationships, either
because they value independence or because they feel uncomfortable about
intimacy.
Anxious-ambivalent attachment style (or preoccupied attachment style) is
characterized by low avoidance (i.e., individuals are motivated to engage in
close relationships) but high anxiety (e.g., fear of being abandoned or hurt).

12. Parasocial Interaction vs Parasocial
Relationships
A parasocial interaction and a parasocial relationship are triggered by
different factors – e.g., a parasocial interaction by forms of addressing like
eye-gazing, a positive parasocial relationship by the mediated other
displaying attractive traits or behavior that instigate liking.
Parasocial interaction may contribute to parasocial relationships, but intense
parasocial relationships can be formed without any parasocial interaction
ever taking place. A typical and common example is if users develop
parasocial relationships after only observing rather than “seemingly
interacting with” characters e.g., as in most movies, TV series, or fictional
formats in which characters do not “break the fourth wall.”

13. Parasocial Processing
The concept differs from parasocial interaction as an illusion of
conversational give-and-take, because it captures all kinds of users’
responses towards personae, regardless of whether users have or do not
have the feeling that the personae adjust their behavior towards their
presence.
Thus, parasocial processes may still occur if users do not feel like being part
of a reciprocal encounter.

14. Dysfunctional Parasocial relationships
If their maintenance results, on average, in exclusion (rather than
inclusion) of the individual from existing social groups.
If they become delusional, i.e., if individuals become ignorant towards or
start forgetting about their one-sided character and increasingly desire
or even expect reciprocity.
When the para-social relationship becomes a substitute for autonomous
social participation, or when it proceeds in absolute defiance of objective
reality, that it can be regarded as pathological.

15. PR vs Celebrity Worship
Parasocial relationships – but not real relationships – helped low self-esteem
individuals to perceive themselves closer to their ideal self.
In contrast, extreme and even compulsive forms of celebrity worshipping are
the parasocial relationships that may be detrimental to the social
adaptation of an individual.
Devoted fans of celebrities may show similar behavior and engage in similar
rituals to those known from religious worshipping.

16. Low Celebrity Worship
Low levels of celebrity worshipping are most common, and also functional,
because they focus on the celebrity’s ability to entertain and on the social
community-building implications of being a fan.
It satisfies the need to belong and fosters wellbeing only if it is both pleasant,
and embedded in a relational structure.

17. Moderate Celebrity Worship
Moderate forms of celebrity worshipping are considered problematic
because they seem to appeal particularly to individuals with a compromised
identity structure.
Moderate forms are characterized by intense and somewhat compulsive
feelings towards and a mental preoccupation with a celebrity.
They result if the celebrity provides a strong sense of fulfillment and
potential distraction from a person’s own problems.

18. Intense Celebrity Worship
Considered as borderline-pathological, because they are characterized by:
Exaggerated devotion “If someone gave me several thousand dollars to do
with as I please, I would consider spending it on a personal possession (like a
napkin or paper plate) once used by my favourite celebrity.”
Compulsive and potentially delusional qualities e.g., erotomania, stalking,
intense devotion.
Extreme celebrity worshipping may result in maladaptive social behavior,
and, as a consequence, negatively affect the well-being of an individual.