The parasocial experience

In watching a conference presentation from cardiology surgeon and stand up comedian, Dr Rohin Francis, he mentioned a term new to me: that of the parasocial relationship (CEBM Oxford, 2025). So I went to look up what that meant.

Originally, we had two components: the parasocial relationship or PSR, which is "the illusion of intimacy with media" figures; and parasocial interactions or PSI, the "sense of a give and take [we may think we have] with the media figure" (Forster, 2023, p. 1, Horton & Wohl, 1956). Today we tend to refer to the parasocial experience or PSE as one thing, or an "imaginary, one-sided engagement of audiences with media personalities" (Forster, 2023, p. 1). It is fascinating that the research on parasocial relationships (Horton & Wohl, 1956) seems to have begun in the television age, but perhaps it was more that the US post war 'golden age' of industrial psychology was gaining a head of steam.

The antithesis of PSE is the social experience... where we interact in person with real people in real time. Where we rock up, warts and all, and have an uncurated, un-Googleable, un-undoable experience. PSE has grown from its formalisation as a concept by Horton and Wohl (1956) of perhaps watching a news reader on TV; however it also includes being an audience observer of "actors (in person) in theater; [and] reading about fictional characters in novels; [and] watching live streamers on social media; and even relating brands and websites as a whole" (Forster, 2023, p. 4). So much of life is a PSE. A book. A sound file. A TV show. A film. A painting. So might a lecture be a PSE, as often we may not have an in-person interaction with a lecturer (Forster, 2023).

Anywhere we can't be in person, but can bank the experience to catch up on later: Zoom recordings or DVDs are PSEs. But then we get into the tricky position of trying to decide if a phone call or a Zoom call is a PSE or an SE. Or is this a blend? We are not in person, but we are interacting in real time. The blending of the virtual and the real makes the boundaries of the terms fuzzy.

I think we can also lose sight that we have had fan-boy/girl reactions to celebrities since forever. PSE is not a purely modern social media thing. We have had PSEs prior to TV as well, with kings, preachers, peacemakers and warriors: Odysseus; Hannibal; Boudica; Joan of Arc; Peter the Great; Queen Victoria; Ghandi. TV made them more accessible; and digital media more accessible still. 

But at least we all now know what a PSE is :-)

Sam

References:

CEBM Oxford. (2025, September 22). The wacky world of wellness-influencer-to-consumer communication - Dr Rohin Francis [video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/lXZh9B_ADko

Forster, R. T. (Ed). (2023). The Oxford Handbook of Parasocial Experience. Oxford University Press.

Horton, D., & Wohl, R. (1956). Mass communication and para-social interaction: Observations on intimacy at a distance. Psychiatry, 19(3), 215-229. https://doi.org/10.1080/00332747.1956.11023049