Technology Growth and the Evolution of Parasocial Interaction

By MeaganThomas

  • Horton and Wohl

    Horton and Wohl conduct the seminal work of parasocial interaction with their study of The Lonesome Gal radio show. Their work was published in 1956.

  • Rubin, Perse and Powell

    Rubin, Perse and Powell develop the parasocial interaction scale.

  • Rubin and McHugh

    Rubin and McHugh looked at if the amount of exposure created a stronger correlation of parasocial interaction or a stronger relationship from the viewer.

  • Perse

    Perse considered the influence of cognitive and emotional involvement on parasocial interaction and found parasocial interaction was predicted when news was more realistic, was less "news," and when he or she felt happy while watching.

  • Auter

    Auter evaluates the PIS and its validity with television.

  • Hoffner

    Hoffner investigates children's want to identify with TV characters and their relationships with favorite characters.

  • Sood and Rogers

    Sood and Rogers look at the dimensions of parasocial interaction based on fans of an Indian soap opera.

  • Eyal and Rubin; Rubin Eyal and Haridakis

    Eyal and Rubin investigate if relationships to aggressive characters links viewers with aggression problems.

  • McCutcheon, Ash, Houran and Maltby

    A study on individuals who worship celebrities is conducted to create a cognitive profile.

  • Chory-Assad and Yanen

    Chory-Assad and Yanen investigate if hopelessness and loneliness are predictors of older adults' parasocial interaction.

  • Jin and Park

    Jin and Park conduct a study about a person's interdependant self-construal and Wii avatars.

  • Kassing and Sanderson

    Kassing and Sanderson investigate parasocial interaction with a celebrity on a specific website, Floydlandis.com.

  • Jin

    After the initial study on parasocial interactions with avatars, Jin did another study investigating how people with a better understanding of themselves and independance have parasocial interactions compared to a person with less self understanding.

  • Theran, Newberg and Gleason

    Adolescent girls' parasocial interaction with media figures, specifically favorite characters, is investigated.

  • Tian and Hoffner

    Tian and Hoffner look at parasocial interaction with characters on television shows and how liking or disliking characters may affect a person's strength of parasocial relationship.

  • YouTube as part of parasocial interaction

    A Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart fan expressed how upset she was by Kristen cheating on Rob on YouTube.