The Differential Effects of Direct Address on Parasocial Experience and Identification: Empirical Support of Discriminant Validity

• In Event: HIGH-DENSITY: At the Intersection of Cognition, Emotion, and Message

Abstract

Whereas parasocial experience is conceptualized as imagined interaction identification is defined as the merging of one’s identity with a character’s. Thus, having a character face the camera and directly address viewers should increase the sense of parasocial experience but not affect the intensity of identification. An experiment compared the levels of parasocial experience and identification among viewers of clips from the show House of Cards that included or omitted direct address tested this prediction. Results provide support for the previously theorized conceptual distinction between parasocial experience and identification.

Authors

• Jonathan Cohen, U of Haifa

• Mary Beth Oliver, Pennsylvania State U

• Helena Bilandzic, Augsburg U