- Many people care deeply about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s divorce
- This is called parasocial relationships, which is common with celebrities
- It is a one-side relationship where one party doesn’t know the other exists
- People create bonds with celebrities’ characters and media personas
Stacy Liberatore For Dailymail.com
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Whether the Brangelina divorce left you in tears or made you smile, there is a reason why you care so much.
Psychologists have suggested this connection towards Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, or any other celebrities, is caused by one-sided ‘intimacy at a distance’.
According to researchers, individuals feel they ‘know’ the celebrity’s persona by directly observing the way they are portrayed in the media and act in real life situations.
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Psychologists have an explanation to why some people care so deeply about Brad Pitt (right) and Angelina Jolie (left) Individuals feel they ‘know’ the celebrity’s persona by directly observing the way these starlets are portrayed in the media and act in real life situations
WHY DO YOU CARE?
Donald Horton and Richard Wohl first identified ‘parasocial relationships’ in a 1956 paper, which suggests the creation of mass media sparked one-sided ‘intimacy at a distance’.
Parasocial relationships are one-sided relationships, where one person extends emotional energy, interest and time.
And the other person is completely unaware of the other’s existence.
A more recent study found that when someone’s favorite television show is cancelled, the individual compares their feeling to that of losing a real friend.
And what makes the Pitt and Jolie’s divorce so real is that the two actors began their real life romance as a movie couple in Mr. Mrs. Smith.
Fans feel they were present during the time their love blossomed and watched it grow into a deep romance.
So to some, it was as if it was their close friends who were splitting up.
Parasocial relationships are one-sided relationships, where one person extends emotional energy, interest and time.
And the other party is completely unaware of the other’s existence.
Donald Horton and Richard Wohl first identified ‘parasocial relationships’ in a 1956 paper, which suggests the creation of mass media sparked one-sided ‘intimacy at a distance’, reports the Science of Us.
‘One of the striking characteristics of the new mass media – radio, television, and the movies – is that they give the illusion of face-to-face relationship with the performer,’ the paper explained.
‘We propose to call this seeming face-to-face relationship between spectator and performer a para-social relationship.’
The work has since been built upon by modern studies, but when Horton and Wohl first began their research, theater was the main type of entertainment and the ‘confusions of identities’ were only temporary.
As soon as the actors took their final bow and the curtains fell one last time, they went back to the ‘matter-of-fact’ world.
But radio and television supplied what the duo called a ‘continuous interplay’.
Movie actors, like Pitt and Jolie, are viewed as the characters they play in films and the personae they share with the media, which people tend to form bonds with.
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Individuals feel they ‘know’ the celebrity’s persona in the way they know that of their chosen friends, which is done by directly observing the way they act in certain situations.
The persona also offers fans a continued relationship, as their ‘appearance is a regular and dependable event, to be counted on, planned for and integrated into the routines of daily life’.
A recent paper from the University of Haifa further developed the 1956 work to meet modern times, Science of Us explains.
Parasocial relationships was created by mass media and sparked one-sided ‘intimacy at a distance. Movie actors, like Pitt and Jolie, are viewed as characters they play in films and the personae the share in media, which people tend to form a bond with
Researchers in the newer study found that when someone’s favorite television show is cancelled, the individual compares their feeling to that of losing a real friend.
And what makes Pitt and Jolie’s divorce feel so real to us is that the two actors began their real life romance as a movie couple in Mr. Mrs. Smith.
Fans feel they were present during the time their love blossomed and watched it grow into a deep romance.
So to some, it was as if it was their close friends who were splitting up.
There was a divided front following news of the ‘Brangelina’ breakup – fans held pack tears, while others were overjoyed about the divorce that end in ‘irreconcilable differences’ this week
Individuals feel they ‘know’ the celebrity’s persona in the way they know that of their chosen friends, which is done by directly observing the way they act in certain situations. And fans believe this persona is a way to share in the pieces of the celebrity’s life
‘Results showed that viewers expecting to lose their favorite characters anticipate negative reactions similar to those experienced after the dissolution of social relationships,’ the researchers explained in the study from the University of Haifa.
‘These reactions were related both to the intensity of the parasocial relationship with the favorite character and to the viewers’ attachment style.’
Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt on Monday for ‘the health of her family’, two years after the couple wed at their French estate Chateau Miraval.
Research shows that when someone’s favorite television show is canceled, it’s like losing a real friend. Pitt and Jolie’s divorce so real for some, because they become a couple during Mr. Mrs. Smith (pictured). So to some, it was as if their close friends who were splitting up
DO YOU SUFFER FROM CELEBRITY WORSHIP SYNDROME?
One in three people is so obsessed with someone in the public eye that he or she is a sufferer, say psychologists.
And one in four is so taken with their idol that the obsession affects their daily life.
Psychologists at the University of Leicester, who used a celebrity worship scale to rate the problems, found that 36 per cent of people suffered from some form of Celebrity Worship Syndrome (CWS), or mad icon disease, and that the number was going up.
One theory is that in a society dominated by TV and with a decline in extended families and communities, celebrities have taken the place of relatives, neighbours and friends for many people.
Respect for family members has been replaced by the worship of the famous.
The study of around 700 people aged 18 to 60 discovered that there were three types of Celebrity Worship Syndrome.
Those with a mild affliction were likely to be extroverts, with a lot of friends. Their worst symptom – at least for their friends – was a passion for talking about their chosen celebrity.
Dr John Maltby, author of the study, said: “We found that 22 per cent of our sample had the low-level form of Celebrity Worship Syndrome, while 12 per cent showed signs of the moderate form which meant they had an intense personal type relationship with their idol.
“The third group, the hardcore CWS sufferers, are solitary, impulsive, anti-social and troublesome, with insensitive traits.
“They feel they have a special bond with their celebrity, believe their celebrity knows them and are prepared to lie or even die for their hero.
Around 2 per cent of people had the most serious form of the syndrome, meaning their celebrity worship was borderline pathological.”
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