Overview
- Cambridge Dictionary says the once-academic term now applies broadly to one-sided bonds with media figures, internet personalities, and artificial intelligences.
- University of Cambridge psychologist Simone Schnall notes these relationships can evoke a sense of knowing and trusting someone who does not know the follower at all.
- The concept was introduced in 1956 by sociologists Donald Horton and Richard Wohl to describe audience attachments to television personalities.
- Dictionary editor Colin McIntosh says the choice captures the 2025 zeitgeist and illustrates how language evolves.
- Cambridge reports that millions of people are involved in parasocial relationships today.