Elizabeth Cohen
A lot of people are excited to see Prince Harry and Meghan Markle get married, even though they’ve never met these people. Some people might think that parasocial attachments to celebrities and royalty is bizarre, but research suggests it’s actually quite normal and can even be healthy. Human beings are social beings, and we are hardwired to feel connected with other people, even if those people don’t even know us.
Elizabeth
Cohen,
Associate Professor, Communication
studies,
WVU Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
“Because we get to see celebrities and public figures so often in the media, we learn a lot about them. In the case of the royal family, we might read news reports about them, or watch film and TV depictions of their life on Netflix. We get to know things about them and we can get a sense of what they are like. In some cases, we can even get to feel like we know them personally, like they’re our friends or acquaintances, even though most of us have technically never met them before.”
Elizabeth Cohenaudio file (1:05)
Elizabeth Cohen
Associate Professor
Communications Studies
304.293.3905
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CONTACT: Kaitlin Swisher, Interim Director, Communications and
Marketing,
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
304.293.9264; kaitlin.swisher@mail.wvu.edu