I’ll Have What She’s Having: Parasocial Communication via Social Media Influences on Risk Behavior
Keywords:
Parasocial interaction, bloggers, experiment, risky behaviors, health communicationAbstract
Frequently people we interact with on social media influence decisions we make in daily life. This study explored the connection between parasocial interaction and imitative buying intentions in blog media space. Using a 2 (Stance: Anti, Pro) X 4 (Risk Behavior: Drinking, E-Cigarette, Product, Control) X 2 (Order) mixed factorial design experiment (N = 63), we focused on the influence of parasocial interaction (PSI) with a blogger on intent to buy products used in a blog post among young women. The research found that those with higher PSI reported greater purchase intention for alcohol than those with lower PSI toward the blogger in the study. These results suggest PSI in social media spaces like blogging can be used to covertly encourage healthy behaviors.
References
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Brown, W. J., Basil, M. D., & Bocarnea, M. C. (2003). The influence of famous athletes on health beliefs and practices: Mark McGwire, child abuse prevention, and androstenedione. Journal of Health Communication, 8(1), 41-57.
Garretson, J. A., & Niedrich, R. W. (2004). Spokes-characters: Creating character trust and positive brand attitudes. Journal of Advertising, 33(2), 25–36.
Giles, D. C. (2002). Parasocial interaction: A review of the literature and a model for future research. Media psychology, 4(3), 279-305.
Hartmann, T. (2016). Parasocial interaction, parasocial relationships, and well-being. In The Routledge Handbook of Media Use and Well-Being: International Perspectives on Theory and Research on Positive Media Effects (pp. 131–144).
Hartmann, T., & Goldhoorn, C. (2011). Horton and Wohl revisited: Exploring viewers’ experience of parasocial interaction. Journal of Communication, 61(6), 1104–1121.
Horton, D., & Richard Wohl, R. (1956). Mass Communication and Para-Social Interaction. Psychiatry, 19(3), 215–229.
Horton, D., & Wohl, R. R. (1956). Mass communication and para-social interactions: Observations on intimacy at a distance. Psychiatry, 19, 215–229.
Jamison, J., & Myers, L. B. (2008). Peer-Group and price influence students drinking along with planned behaviour. Alcohol and Alcoholism, 43(4), 492–497.
Kasperson, R. E., & Kasperson, J. X. (1996). The Social Amplification and Attenuation of Risk. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 545(1), 95–105.
Khamis, S., Ang, L., & Welling, R. (2017). Self-branding, ‘micro-celebrity’ and the rise of Social Media Influencers. Celebrity Studies, 8(2), 191–208.
Lim, C. M., & Kim, Y. K. (2011). Older consumers’ TV home shopping: Loneliness, parasocial interaction, and perceived convenience. Psychology and Marketing, 28(8), 763–780.
Marwick, A., & Boyd, D. (2011). To see and be seen: Celebrity practice on twitter. Convergence, 17(2), 139–158.
Meyrowitz, J. (1986). Television and interpersonal behavior: Codes of perception and response. In G. Gumpert & R. Catheart (Eds.), Inter/media: interpersonal communication in a media world (3rd ed., pp. 253–272). New York: Oxford University Press.
Moyer-Gusé, E. (2008). Toward a theory of entertainment persuasion: Explaining the persuasive effects of entertainment-education messages. Communication Theory, 18(3), 407–425.
Nordlund, J. E. (1978). Media interaction. Communication Research, 5(2), 150–175.
Park, J. H., & Lennon, S. J. (2004). Television apparel shopping: Impulse buying and parasocial interaction. Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, 22(3), 135–144.
Perse, E. M., & Rubin, R. B. (1989). Attribution in Social and Parasocial Relationships. Communication Research, 16(1), 59–77.
Rubin, A. M., & Step, M. M. (2000). Impact of motivation, attraction, and parasocial interaction on talk radio listening. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 44(4), 635–654.
Rubin, R. B., & McHugh, M. P. (1987). Development of Paraoscial Interaction Relationships. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 31(3), 279–292.
Russell, C. A., Norman, A. T., & Heckler, S. E. (2004). The Consumption of Television Programming: Development and Validation of the Connectedness Scale. Journal of Consumer Research, 31(1), 150–161.
Russell, C. A., & Puto, C. P. (1999). Rethinking Television Audience Measures: An Exploration into the Construct of Audience Connectedness. Marketing Letters, 10(4), 393–407.
Russell, C. A., & Stern, B. B. (2006). Consumers, Characters, and Products. Journal of Advertising, 35(1), 7–21.
Schramm, H., & Wirth, W. (2010). Testing a Universal Tool for Measuring Parasocial Interactions Across Different Situations and Media: Findings from Three Studies. Journal of Media Psychology, 22(1), 26–36.
So, J. (2012). Risk convergence model: A model of media's influence on self-other social distance and personal risk perceptions. Doctoral dissertation. University of California, Santa Barbara.
Stafford, M. R., Spears, N. E., & Hsu, C. K. (2003). Celebrity images in magazine advertisements: An application of the visual rhetoric model. Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, 25(2), 13–20.
Tian, Y., & Yoo, J. H. (2015). Connecting With The Biggest Loser: An Extended Model of Parasocial Interaction and Identification in Health-Related Reality TV Shows. Health Communication, 30(1), 1–7.
White, A., & Hingson, R. (2013). The burden of alcohol use: excessive alcohol consumption and related consequences among college students. Alcohol Research : Current Reviews, 35(2), 201–218.
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2020-12-18
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