Attribution in Social and Parasocial Relationships

Abstract

This study examined social and parasocial interaction from interpersonal attribution perspectives. Parasocial interaction is a perceived interpersonal relationship on the part of a television viewer with a mass media persona. We proposed that attributional confidence associated with parasocial interaction would mirror that resulting from social interaction and that personal construct theory and uncertainty reduction theory might add to knowledge about the nature of attributional confidence. Soap-opera-viewing college students (N = 105) completed questionnaires. Analysis revealed that, similar to social relationships, parasocial relationships with favorite soap opera characters were based, to some extent, on reduction of uncertainty and the ability to predict accurately the feelings and attitudes of the persona. The discussion focuses on implications of these findings for uncertainty reduction theory and personal construct theory.