Week 3: Relationships with fictional characters: para-social relationships
Introduction
We read to know we are not alone.
Reading is very often an activity that is undertaken alone. Indeed, as you saw in the previous week, even if you are surrounded by other people, when reading you can become so immersed in a book that you stop being aware of your surroundings. This can make reading sound like a solitary and isolating thing to do. Even though that can be, in some sense at least, true of the physical act of reading, the psychological engagement with the story and the world(s) it depicts tends to act in the opposite way. Research has found that engaging with fictional characters and fictional worlds can replicate many of the psychological benefits that result from interacting socially with real people in the real world (Liebers and Schramm, 2019). Of course, anyone who is an avid reader of fiction knew this already … but it is always nice to have some evidence in support!
By the end of this week, you should be able to:
- explore the relationships that readers can form with fictional characters
- understand what is meant by para-social relationships
- understand some of the psychological and health benefits that can result from reading such as meeting our need to belong and reducing loneliness.