Parasocial Relationships: What They Are, And What Are Their Causes
On TV, social networks, radio and other media, all kinds of media characters appear in which we can feel identified. From seeing and listening to them so much, we feel like we know them, as if they were people as close as our lifelong friends, our family members or classmates.
Becoming familiar with a famous actor or a very influential YouTuber is a very common experience, and it can take the form of a very long-lasting relationship with that media figure, despite the fact that, in essence, he or she is still a stranger.
These types of pseudolinks are called parasocial relationships a very interesting and common type of social interaction in the era of “mass media” that we are going to delve into below.
Let’s imagine that we go through our city and enter a store to do the shopping like every week. Upon entering we see Lionel Messi in the dairy aisle: what do we do? Of course, his presence does not leave us indifferent. We may take a photo with him, ask for an autograph, or even dare to comment on his latest play. In short, we would behave very closely, even intimately, as if we had known him all our lives.
Regardless of how annoying we are to poor Messi who just wanted to buy milk, this is all normal. It is very natural that we want to get closer to a character that we have seen many times on television and, if we are fans of FC Barcelona, we have gone to see them play soccer live. But why do we feel confident enough to be able to talk to him as if he were a friend? At the end of the day, he is still just another person on the street. We don’t really know him, nor is he our friend.
The answer to all this is very simple: we have established a parasocial relationship with the footballer. parasocial relationships They are false social relationships that develop towards any media character, whether real or fictitious, and that we perceive as if he were a person very close to us. We come to identify with him or have some kind of feeling towards that person, from empathy or dislike to infatuation or absolute boredom.
Parasocial relationships can develop practically with any character that appears in the media, whether television, radio, social networks or print media, although media that use the screen produce this effect more intensely. These characters can be actors, singers, athletes, politicians and even non-real characters such as the protagonists of a series and cartoons (especially children). We believe, falsely, that we know these characters simply by having seen them in the media.
This effect is quite common, given that the “mass media” exerts an important weight on popular culture and the population in general. When we see a famous person, especially on television shows or YouTube videos, even though we are aware that what we see is a screen, our subconscious deceives us. The moment we are part of the audience, our mind thinks that what we are seeing has been created expressly for us, making us become more involved in the life of the character in question.
The “mass media” knows all this and knows how to take advantage of it. When a YouTuber looks at the camera or a presenter of a television show directly asks the audience at home, they are using strategies so that we do not stray from the content. When we look at ourselves this way, our brain, which is wired to interpret looking into our eyes as starting and maintaining a conversation, perceives it as if whoever is on the screen is talking to us, knows us is aware that we are paying attention to it and even show empathy and feelings of attraction.
The concept of parasocial relationship was originally proposed by Donald Horton and Richard Wohl in 1956. These authors defined it as the fact that a person unconsciously creates a relationship of closeness with a media person, experienced in a particularly intense way. Already at that time they talked about it being a unilateral relationship in which the only person who believes it is the audience and not the sender of the message.
The message is still directed at a wide audience, of which we are a part. Based on this, we continue to be a more or less homogeneous mass in terms of the degree of its reception, that is, we have not been told one thing or another taking us into account as individuals, but as a mass to be influenced.
How long does a parasocial relationship last?
The duration of parasocial relationships is indefinite, since It depends directly on how long the media personality in question is relevant, regardless of whether it is real or fictitious. The parasocial relationship will last as long as the content in which said character appears lasts.
To understand it better, let’s imagine that we are watching a television contest in which participants have to answer questions to win money. While the contest lasts, we can feel connected to the participants and even feel free to shout out the answers to them while they participate in it. We can shout things like “but look, you’re a donkey! “Why haven’t you chosen B, LA BE!?” or “If you had chosen the first answer you would now have €1,000, what’s wrong with you? are you stupid? “Do you like being silly?”
Even though these contestants don’t hear us and are still complete strangers, we tell them everything. When the contest ends and these participants are no longer in it, the parasocial relationship will cease to exist. Since they no longer appear on the screen because they have been eliminated from the contest, we no longer show empathy or animosity towards them. It’s like they have disappeared.
Another more lasting case is that of famous people such as actors, singers and content creators. The parasocial relationships that we establish with this type of media characters tend to last longer, given that their relevance in the media is longer It may even be the case that we professionally follow these characters wherever they go. For example, soap opera actors, when they end up in one series, usually get a role in another, making their fans watch the new series.
The same thing happens with singers. If we are fans of a performer, it is likely that we have gone to see him in concert, but we also want to find out everything he does. If we find out that on that day he is going to give an interview on X program that we have never talked about, it is very likely that we will end up seeing it.
If that same singer says that he is retiring from the world of music and stops giving interviews, once he is no longer relevant in the media, many parasocial relationships will be broken. It is likely that his fans, especially those who had a “crush” with him, will experience it especially badly, as if it were a sentimental breakup, but in a matter of a very short time there will be very few people left who continue idolizing him.
