Magda K. Martinez-Mata & Sandra J. E. Langeslag, University of Missouri – St. Louis, USA
published in the Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Love and Relationship Studies, 6-8 March, 2026
You can see the full video recording of this presentation at the YouTube channel of the International Institute of Love Studies
Introduction
Parasocial love is the concept that characterizes having romantic feelings toward a media figure (e.g., actors/actresses, singers, influencers, athletes, or video game, movie, or book characters, etc.), despite having no reciprocal interaction (Tukachinsky Forster, 2021). Although parasocial love and real-life romantic love seem to be similar (e.g., in terms of love and break-up symptoms) (Cohen, 2004; Tukachinsky Forster, 2021), researchers have never directly compared them in terms of subjective feelings and brain activity. The aim of this study was to compare subjective feelings for and event-related potential (ERP) brain responses reflecting attention toward a parasocial beloved and real-life beloved.
Methodology and Methods
The sample included ten participants who have both a parasocial and a real-life beloved as well as seven participants who have only a parasocial beloved. All participants completed all the conditions (data collection ongoing). Participants completed the Infatuation and Attachment Scales (IAS; Langeslag et al., 2013) and Parasocial Love Scale (Tukachinsky Forster, 2023), assessing their subjective love feelings for the parasocial and real-life beloved (if any). The event-related potential (ERP) brain responses were recorded in two tasks with three or four picture expositions: parasocial beloved, real-life beloved (if any), friend, and stranger.
In the first task, participants passively viewed the pictures, eliciting the late positive potential (LPP), which reflects motivated attention.
In the second task, participants viewed the same pictures on a rapid serial visual presentation task to elicit the early posterior negativity (EPN), which reflects early automatic attention.
In the third task, participants evaluated how pleasant, aroused, and in control the pictures made them feel to assess subjective valence, arousal, and dominance.
Highlights of Results
Preliminary results suggest that participants reported a stronger attachment on the Infatuation and Attachment Scales (IAS) and a stronger emotional response on the Parasocial Love Scale for their real-life beloved than for their parasocial beloved. Participants did not report a difference in the level of infatuation on the IAS and in the physical attraction level on the Parasocial Love Scale between their parasocial and real-life beloved.
Participants felt most pleasant, aroused and in control when they viewed their parasocial and real-life beloved, intermediately when viewing their friend, and least when viewing the stranger.
In the event-related potential, the late positive potential amplitude (indicating motivated attention) was greatest in response to the parasocial and real-life beloved, intermediate in response to the friend, and smallest in response to the stranger. In addition, the early posterior negativity (indicating automatic attention) was greater in response to the parasocial beloved than the real-life beloved, friend, and stranger.
Discussion and Conclusions
Parasocial and real-life beloved seem similar on passionate love, physical attraction, pleasantness, arousal, dominance, and motivated attention. However, while the real-life beloved appears to be associated more with emotional response and companionate love, the parasocial beloved is associated with more automatic attention.
The late positive potential data showed that participants allocated greater motivated attention to the parasocial and real-life beloved than to their feelings toward friends and strangers. Simultaneously, the early posterior negativity data showed that participants allocated greater automatic attention to the parasocial beloved than to the real-life beloved, friend, and stranger. Getting a better understanding of parasocial love is important due to the increasing medialization and digitalization of society.