L11 - Levels of Parasocial Relationships Flashcards
What are parasocial relationships?
- One sided relationship with a celebrity/prominent person/fictional character
- A fan knows everything about the subject of their adoration and feels close to them
- No chance of reciprocity
How many levels of parasocial relationships did Giles and Maltby identify? How did they do this?
- 3
- Using the celebrity attitude scale
What is the first stage?
Entertainment-Social:
- Least intense level of celeb worship
- People engage in parasocial relationships at this stage and stay here
- Celebs are a source of entertainment and a topic for light-hearted gossiping with friends.
What is the second stage?
Intense-Personal:
- Deeper level
- Person has a more intense relationship with a celeb
- e,g see them as a soulmate and have an intense interest in their personal life like their food, dress sense
What is the third stage?
Borderline Pathological:
- Most intense
- Celeb worship is extreme
- Obsessive fantasies, sums of money on memorabilia and illegal activities like stalking
- People believe if they were given a chance to meet their celeb in personal, their feelings would be reciprocated
Evaluation (+)
(+) Sig positive correlation between the amount of tv ppt watched, the degree to which they perceived a character as ‘real’ and the level of their parasocial relationship
(+) Research support that attractiveness increases likelihood of parasocial relationship. The attractiveness of a celeb influenced the development of the three stages from members of public
Evaluation (-)
(-) Education levels need to be accounted for. Highly educated individuals perceive the majority of celebs as less educated and are less likely to engage in parasocial relationship
(-) Recommended training occurs in schools to highlight the dangers of parasocial relationships as it results in an individual having unrealistic goals to be more similar to celebs e.g eating disorders
(-) Research conducted by questionnaires. Social desirability bias = less validity
