Friend or Faux: A Scientific Comparison of Reciprocal Relationships and Parasocial Relationships and Their Psychological Effects

Abstract

The prominence of social media in our society has led to an increase in the presence of parasocial relationships—a relationship in which someone perceives another person as having an interpersonal relationship with them, despite not interacting with the media user directly. Our current body of literature has produced little understanding of how these relationships compare to reciprocal relationships, in terms of their psychological ramifications. Specifically, there is little consensus in the literature about what factors of well-being are most impacted by sustaining parasocial relationships. This study aimed to investigate these gaps in knowledge and compare how these different types of relationships affect psychological factors of well-being. The specific psychological factors investigated in this research included perceived social support, sense of belonging, subjective well-being, mood, quality of relationship, perceived closeness of relationship, relationship intensity, and wishful identification. The present study utilized a between-subjects experimental design in which participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions, including a control condition. In the two experimental conditions, participants were asked to write about either their favorite media persona or a real friend they have. The primary hypothesis was that parasocial relationships would be less impactful on the psychological well-being of individuals than reciprocal relationships, which could help to inform our understanding of the consequences of developing parasocial relationships. It was found that while overall, parasocial relationships can affect individuals’ mental well-being, they are not directly equal to that of a reciprocal relationship