Levels of parasocial relationships
- A parasocial relationship (PR) is a one-sided relationship in that one of the partners (who is generally the object of the other person’s affection/desire/obsession/adoration) is unaware that the relationship exists
- A PR tends to be focused on someone who is famous or well-known e.g. a sportsperson, a pop star, a ‘reality’ celebrity, a film star, a writer
- According to Maltby et al. (2006) there are three levels of parasocial relationships:
- Entertainment-social - this is what might be termed the ‘fun’ level of PR in which a celebrity or a source of entertainment such as a TV programme provides diverting gossip and social bonding e.g. Ken and Dierdre spend every coffee break at work having a good old chat about Coronation Street
- Intense-personal: this entails a more serious and focused interest in a famous person involving frequent thoughts and daydreams about them e.g. Ziggy thinks that if David Bowie was still alive then the two of them would be best friends
- Borderline pathological - this level spills over into deviant and abnormal behaviour as it may involve extreme acts and delusional thoughts about the celebrity e.g. ‘No wonder Idris Elba won’t reply to my letters; his manager is trying to split us up’
Eminem’s ‘Stan’ is a good example of borderline pathological ‘fan’ behaviour.