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Description
Past research on parasocial interaction has identified a number of user and media figure characteristics that increase the level of parasocial interaction between the individual and media figure. Additionally, research shows that media figures are found to be persuasive to media users and consumers. Research has yet to address the influence of media user characteristics on engagement with PSI. This paper uses a uses and gratifications framework to identify hypotheses regarding personal characteristics of self-esteem, attachment needs, relationship status and media figure characteristics of attractiveness, homophily, and fictionality and how they relate to PSI. To test these hypotheses, an online study was conducted to measure the user characteristics of self-esteem, attachment needs, and relationship status and the media figure characteristics of perceived attractiveness, perceived homophily, and whether they are real or fictional and test the association of user and media figure characteristics with the level of PSI. The relationship between PSI and persuasion was also tested. A research question of whether more real or fictional characters was also included to provide insight in to an area that previously has not been researched. Linear regression analysis indicated that PSI was not related to the characteristics of the media user (self-esteem, attachment needs, and relationship status), but was related to characteristics of the media figure (attractiveness, homophily and realness). The frequency was run on the variable of real versus fictional and found that 74.4% provided the name of a real media figure. As expected, PSI was also related to persuasion. The findings of this study have implications in many media-related fields, as we see that characteristics of the media figure are more predictive of PSI and thus persuasion.
