The terms “Parasocial Relationship” and “Parasocial Interaction” were first coined in 1956 by Donald Horton, a professor at Yale and Richard Wohl, a professor of social sciences. They first suggested parasocial relationships to be a appeared face-to-face relationship between a media personality and a spectator. The dynamic they described between persona and consumer was one where the consumer decided if they are in this one-sided relationship or not, and the personality controls all of the interaction between them.
Throughout the 1980s, much of the research done for parasocial relationships and interactions was done in the fields of communcation and media research, trying to see how engaging in parasocial interaction affects how one will continue to consume media. They found that people would often be drawn to media personalities who seemed more “real,” for lack of a better word. People were drawn to empathetic appeals, and presentation that was more personal in nature.
Unfortunately, from those 1980s to the early 2000s, very little research was being done on Parasocial Relationships from Psychologists. There’s not enough research on the effects of parasocial relationships on a consumer’s mental state, and it certainly deserves more research. With this webtext, we’re looking at parasocial relationships with a lens somewhat in between psychology and communications.
Here’s a couple videos that got me interested in studying Parasocial Relationships:
Episode One
Episode Two