A parasocial relationship is a one-sided emotional bond in which a person feels a sense of familiarity, friendship, or intimacy with someone they follow but do not personally know, such as a streamer, influencer, or recurring character in an app. The attachment is real for the audience member, while the figure on the other side has no reciprocal knowledge of them.
The term comes from mid-twentieth-century research on television viewers who felt close to newscasters they had never met, and it is now used to describe everything from podcast listening habits to daily chats with an AI companion. Knowing the concept helps people tell the difference between genuine mutual relationships and the warm, comfortable feeling a one-sided connection can produce.
Also called: parasocial interaction, parasocial attachment, parasocial bond, one-sided relationship
