Television Characters as Significant Others and the Process of Vicarious Role Taking

Abstract

This article develops two ideas pertaining to television and role taking from the perspective of symbolic interactionism. First, viewers may take the role of salient television personalities, during viewing and in nonviewing contexts, and may modify their behavior to conform to the imaginary evaluations of those television characters. Second, viewers may vicariously evaluate the behavior of one television “other” from the imagined perspective of a second, thus role taking both characters. This process, and the resulting observational feedback on accuracy of the vicarious role taking, is hypothesized to provide a training ground for the acquisition of role-taking skills. The conceptualization of seven propositions related to TV others and vicarious role taking point to an important prosocial function of a rapidly proliferating technology.