A research says that “admiring celebrities can help
improve self-esteem”. A new study appearing in Personal Relationships shows how
“connections” to celebrities, i.e. parasocial relationships, can allow people
with low-self esteem to view themselves more positively.
For many people, the admiration of celebrities can have
some important benefits. Jaye L. Derrick and Shira Gabriel of the University at
Buffalo, State University of New York illustrate how parasocial relationships
can provide a safe route for people who have a difficult time with real
interpersonal relationships. People with low self-esteem can use their
parasocial relationships to feel closer to the ideals they hold for themselves.
Researchers conducted three studies using approximately
one hundred undergraduate university students each to examine the relationship
between self-esteem, parasocial relationship closeness, and self-discrepancies.
Participants identified their favorite celebrity and described that celebrity
in an open-ended essay. The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale assessed global
self-evaluations.
Results showed that people with low self-esteem saw their
favorite celebrities as very similar to their ideal selves. Low self-esteem
people primed with their favorite celebrity felt more similar to their ideal
selves than low self-esteem people primed with a control celebrity. Also,
people with low self-esteem primed with their favorite celebrity felt more
similar to their ideal selves than low self-esteem people primed with a close
relationship partner.
The current research demonstrates that parasocial
relationships can have self-enhancing benefits for low self-esteem people that
they do not receive in real relationships. These parasocial relationships,
which have very low risk of rejection, offer low self-esteem people an
opportunity to reduce their self-discrepancies and feel closer to their ideal
selves.
“Even ‘fake’ relationships with celebrities,
relationships without any actual contact, can have benefits for the self,” the
authors conclude. “We found that parasocial relationships can sometimes have
benefits for people with low-self esteem that ‘real’ relationships do not.”
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