A favourite YouTuber or a beloved book character may be more effective at cheering you up than an acquaintance, UK researchers say One-sided relationships with online stars may cheer us up more than reciprocated exchanges with acquaintances, according to new research. From admiring a celebrity to getting regular updates on the daily life of a YouTuber unlikely to return the favour, these dynamics are known as parasocial interactions. It’s a term that was coined by two American sociologists in 1956 to refer to people’s attachment to television personalities.
They’re sometimes known by the more extreme examples - such as fans resorting to stalking - but these parasocial relationships could also be positive for our well-being. That’s the conclusion from a team of researchers at the University of Essex in the UK who included more than 1,000 people in multiple surveys. They found people perceived this kind of relationship as fulfilling emotional needs more effectively than acquaintances and published the findings in the journal People “actually felt that their strong parasocial ties would be more effective than their weaker ties at helping them fulfil an emotional need, like cheering them up or helping them calm down if they were feeling upset,” Veronica Lamarche, the study’s corresponding author from the University of Essex's psychology department, told Euronews Health.
One possible explanation is that one-sided relationships are seen as available and that people ar.
