Evaluation of Parasocial Relationship Theories

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Support for the Absorption-Addiction Model

There are research studies that support the absorption-addiction model.

Maltby et al. (2005) investigated the link between celebrity worship and body image in males and females aged 14 to 16 years.
They focused on females who reported an intense personal parasocial relationship with a female celebrity whose body shape they admired.

Maltby et al. found that these female adolescents tended to have poor body image.
They speculated that this link may be a precursor to the development of eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa.

Maltby et al. (2003) linked:
- The entertainment-social category of celebrity worship with extroverted personality traits.
- The intense-personal category with neurotic traits.
- The borderline pathological category with psychotic personality type.

These studies support the model because they confirm the prediction of a correlation between the level of celebrity worship and poor psychological functioning.

There are problems with the suggestion that parasocial relationship are linked to attachment styles.

McCutcheon et al. (2006) measured attachment types and celebrity related attitudes in 299 participants.
They found that the participants with insecure attachments were no more likely to form parasocial relationships with celebrities than participants with secure attachments.
This finding fails to support a central prediction of the attachment theory of parasocial relationships.
This reduces its validity.

There are two major methodological issues with research into parasocial relationships: the use of self-report methods and the use of correlational analysis.
Most research studies on parasocial relationships use self-report methods to collect data - for example, online questionnaires.
This method has been known to produce biased findings because participants may respond to personal questions in a way which they think enhances their social status.
This is known as social desirability bias.

Most studies use correlation analysis. But correlation cannot establish causal direction.
- E.g. strong correlations are found between celebrity worship and body image. But the conclusion that an intense personal parasocial relationship causes young women to have poor body image has not been established.

It might be that young women who already have poor body image are drawn to an intense personal worship of an admired celebrity.
The issue of cause and effect could be addressed by longitudinal studies, but there are currently too few to have an impact.

There are also problems with the absorption addiction model.

The addiction and absorption model is based on correlational studies.
Questions remain about the validity of this model as an explanation of parasocial relationships.

The model has been criticised for being a better description of parasocial relationships than it is an explanation.
- For example, the model is capable of describing the characteristics of people who are most absorbed by and addicted to a celebrity, but, unlike attachment theory, it does not explain how such characteristics develop.

Research studies have identified a tendency of some people to form a parasocial relationship with Harry Potter, an entirely fictional character.
Developing this, Schmid and Klimmt (2011) reported that this tendency to form parasocial relationships with fictional characters is not culturally specific.
Using an online questionnaire methodology, they found similar levels of parasocial attachments to Harry Potter in an individualistic culture (Germany) and a collectivist culture (Mexico).