4.3.2 - Parasocial relationships

One-sided relationships

A parasocial relationship is a relationship that feels socially meaningful to one person even though it is not reciprocated by the other. In AQA Relationships, the other person is usually a celebrity, influencer, musician, athlete, presenter or fictional character. Media can create a feeling of familiarity and intimacy without the mutual give-and-take of an ordinary friendship.

Horton and Wohl (1956) introduced the idea when they argued that radio and television performers could create an illusion of face-to-face intimacy. A presenter might look into the camera, speak in a warm personal style and appear in the viewer's home every week. The viewer may feel as if they "know" the persona, but the relationship is still one-sided.

That one-sidedness matters. In a real friendship, both people can correct misunderstandings, negotiate boundaries and choose whether to continue the relationship. In a parasocial relationship, the fan can withdraw, imagine closeness, follow the media figure and interpret public messages personally, but the media figure does not share a mutual relationship with that fan.

It is useful to distinguish a parasocial interaction, the felt social encounter during a particular programme or stream, from an enduring parasocial relationship that continues between viewings. A brief reply from a streamer does not necessarily make that ongoing bond reciprocal: the fan may know much about the public persona while the streamer knows almost nothing about them. A genuinely mutual friendship can develop, but it is the relationship's reciprocity, not the medium, that makes the distinction.

Ordinary fandom can provide enjoyment, identity and friendships with other fans. One-sidedness is not itself evidence of disorder. The explanations below address why involvement differs in intensity and can sometimes become disruptive.

Levels Of Parasocial Relationships

McCutcheon, Lange and Houran (2002) developed the Celebrity Attitude Scale (CAS) to measure the intensity of celebrity worship. Research using the CAS distinguishes three levels widely used in AQA Psychology: entertainment-social, intense-personal and borderline-pathological.

The levels describe increasing intensity. They classify patterns of involvement, not an inevitable staircase every fan climbs. Look at emotional meaning and boundaries as well as the amount of time or money: buying a costly ticket is not by itself evidence of the most extreme level.

Named evidence: Maltby, Houran and McCutcheon (2003). This study tested whether the three CAS levels fitted Eysenck's personality dimensions. Large convenience samples of students (N = 317) and community adults (N = 290) completed the CAS and a personality questionnaire. Celebrity worship for entertainment-social reasons was associated with extraversion, intense-personal celebrity worship with neuroticism, and borderline-pathological celebrity worship with psychoticism. The correlations were modest, but the pattern supports distinguishing the levels. Psychoticism here names an Eysenck personality dimension; it is not a diagnosis of psychosis. The CAS labels likewise describe questionnaire patterns, not clinical diagnoses.

AO3 caution. The CAS is a self-report measure. Standard items make private experiences comparable across people, but respondents may hide embarrassing thoughts, exaggerate enthusiasm or interpret a statement differently. A stated willingness to trespass is also not the same as observed trespassing. This means the levels are useful for exams, but they are still based on how people describe themselves.

The Absorption-Addiction Model

The absorption-addiction model explains how parasocial relationships may develop and become more intense. McCutcheon and colleagues argued that celebrity worship may compensate for psychosocial difficulties, such as low self-esteem, a weak sense of identity, loneliness, poor real-life relationships or stressful life events.

The model has two parts.

Absorption is the starting process. A person becomes highly focused on the celebrity's life because it offers escape, meaning or identity. They may watch interviews, follow updates, collect information and use the celebrity's success or personality as a way to feel more complete. The fan's attention is absorbed into the celebrity's world.

Addiction is the escalation process. The person may need stronger forms of involvement to get the same sense of satisfaction. Casual viewing is no longer enough, so they seek more personal information, spend more time online, buy more products, attempt contact or develop fantasies that feel increasingly real. This provides a proposed link between increasing intensity and the CAS levels. It does not establish that every fan escalates, or that frequent media use alone is addiction. The model uses “addiction” to explain increasing involvement; a CAS response does not diagnose a clinical disorder.

AO1 chain for the exam

1. The model proposes an unmet psychological or social need.
2. A person may use the celebrity relationship as compensation.
3. They become absorbed in the celebrity's life.
4. The involvement starts to feel rewarding.
5. Over time, they may need more intense involvement to get the same reward.
6. In extreme cases, this may lead to obsessive or socially inappropriate behaviour.

AO2 example. After a difficult move to a new college, Niamh feels lonely and unsure of her identity. She begins watching every interview with a singer whose confidence she admires. At first this comforts her, but soon she feels restless unless she checks fan accounts several times an hour. The absorption-addiction model would say that Niamh's parasocial relationship is compensating for low belonging and identity uncertainty, and the "addiction" element is shown by the need for more frequent involvement.

Recent research link. Aruguete et al. (2024) tested whether the absorption-addiction model overlaps with broader ideas such as emptiness, obsessive passion and extremism. In an online questionnaire study of 399 undergraduates, sense of emptiness, obsessive passion and extremism were positively associated with celebrity attraction. This does not prove the model is correct, but it supports the idea that intense celebrity worship is linked to wider patterns of unmet needs and excessive devotion.