parasocial

adjective

para·​so·​cial ˌper-ə-ˈsō-shəl 

ˌpa-rə-

: relating to or involving a one-sided emotional connection with someone (especially a celebrity or fictional character) whom one does not know personally

… parasocial …—a term coined in 1956 to describe the connection between television viewers and a new class of entertainment personalities, including announcers, game-show hosts and anyone else who spoke in direct address to the camera.

—Jamie Lauren Keiles

"Most of these relationships originate when someone is admired at a distance," says Gayle Stever, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Empire State College/State University of New York who researches parasocial attachment. "Lack of reciprocity is a defining feature." Most occur through media, but they may also form in other settings, like with a professor, pastor, or someone you see around campus, she notes.

—Jake Smith

… we all partake in parasocial interactions. We mentally interact with characters we watch on TV, or the characters in books we're reading, or podcasts we listen to.

—Shayla Love

Platforms like Twitter have transformed the nature of parasocial relationships, both intensifying them and making them harder to define, as more celebrities actively interact with fans and share personal information.

—Lauren Young

Examples of parasocial in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The segment could have used an overhead shot to better show everything that was going on, and having a camera on Timothée Chalamet but not cutting to him after ballerina Misty Copeland pirouetted right in his face was a crime against our parasocial relationships. —Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 16 Mar. 2026

People have parasocial relationships with podcasters. —Anna Wiener, New Yorker, 9 Mar. 2026

The first studies on parasocial relationships, in the Eighties, were about soap opera stars and newscasters, since that was who people used to feel familiar with on a daily basis. —Lorena O’Neil, Rolling Stone, 27 Feb. 2026

Gardner says that these types of appeals, both to the public and would-be captors, play into the kinds of parasocial relationships from which Lindbergh also benefited in the search for his child. —Kase Wickman, Vanity Fair, 7 Feb. 2026

Thanks to Frank's parasocial relationship with Ronnie, audiences will see Bale puttin' on the ritz in multiple scenes. —Sydney Bucksbaum, Entertainment Weekly, 3 Feb. 2026

Influencers are not real friends, although some might form parasocial relationships with them. —Dina Borzekowski, Baltimore Sun, 27 Jan. 2026

Listeners often develop strong, one-way emotional bonds with podcast hosts, a phenomenon known as a parasocial relationship. —Frank Racioppi, Forbes.com, 15 Jan. 2026

Polly Barton, Hooked: A Novel of Obsession Ecco, March 17 The author of the international bestseller Butter, which only made it to English in 2024, is back with an up-to date novel about parasocial relationships, social media, the human hunt for happiness, and yes, of course, obsession. —Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 6 Jan. 2026

Word History

Etymology

para- entry 1 + social entry 1

Note: The word was introduced by the American sociologists Donald Horton and R. Richard Wohl (1921-57) in "Mass Communication and Para-social Interaction: Observations on Intimacy at a Distance," Psychiatry, vol. 19 (1956), issue 3, pp. 215-29.

First Known Use

1956, in the meaning defined above