analysis
Parasocial Relationships
Parasocial relationships, one-sided bonds with people who don't know we exist, were Cambridge Dictionary's 2025 word of the year, but the psychology behind them is decades old. From Horton and Wohl's 1956 study to today's cam sites and Twitch streams, the research punctures the myth that only lonely people form these attachments and shows how live platforms turned intimacy at a distance into a paid, two-way performance.