A term or concept · 1940 · Early theory
Wishful thinking
The long-standing explanation that parasocial feeling is a projection - people attach to a figure because the figure is available to be shaped by whoever is looking.
Still the most intuitive theory and the least satisfying one, because it makes the relationship entirely internal to the viewer. The research moved away from it, not because projection is wrong, but because it cannot explain why a specific figure reaches a specific person and nobody else does.
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