Social and parasocial relationships during COVID-19 social distancing

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic provided an extraordinarily unique opportunity to investigate how sudden, involuntary alterations to social routines influenced not just social relationships, but also parasocial relationships with fictional characters and celebrities. Results from a four-wave panel survey administered during the COVID-19 pandemic ( N = 166) revealed that social relationships maintained their stability during social distancing, particularly among participants who increased mediated social engagement with friends and those low in attachment anxiety. Parasocial closeness with media personae increased over time, suggesting that favorite media personae became more meaningful as participants engaged in social distancing. Parasocial closeness increased with greater intensity among participants who increased parasocial engagement, reduced face-to-face social engagement with friends, increased mediated social engagement with friends, and those low in attachment anxiety. Results are discussed in terms of the potential influence of increased mediated social engagement with real-life friends on the parasocial processing of celebrities and fictional characters.