When the anthropologist Donald Horton and the sociologist R. Richard Wohl published their
essay on parasocial interactions (PSI) and parasocial relation ships (PSR), titled “Mass …

Two online studies analyzed the impact of the fit between Instagram influencers and the
endorsed brand. The first study used an experimental design and focused on internal validity, …

With the rise of social media, social media influencers (SMIs) have steadily gained importance
as brand endorsers by establishing strong parasocial relationships (PSRs) with their …

Although romantic parasocial phenomena with media characters can have a significant
impact on individuals’ lives, little is known about the personal predictors that facilitate their …

Although social media influencers have become popular brand endorsers, previous
research on this new form of advertising has neglected to analyze how the followers of these …

Due to the practice of greenwashing, consumers’ trust in green advertising has been reduced.
Consequently, when confronted with green advertising appeals, individuals often infer …

While studies on parasocial relationship (PSR) have been conducted for nearly 60 years in
various media contexts, research on PSR with book characters has been neglected so far. To …

Individuals who score high on the dark triad of socially aversive traits—narcissism, psychopathy,
and Machiavellianism—are prone to engage in short-term, non-committal romantic …

… Nicole Liebers Nicole Liebers is a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute for Human-Computer-Media,
University of Würzburg, Germany. Her research interests include parasocial …

The question whether parasocial phenomena are developed as a kind of social surrogacy
has been much discussed—and mostly answered with “no.” However, former studies focused …