Following Celebrities on Social Networking Sites: The Role of Parasocial Interaction, Self-disclosure, Trustworthiness, and Time Spent on SNS

This study examines the relationships between celebrities and their followers through social networking sites (SNS). A total of 239 participants completed the survey through MTurk. The results show that celebrities’ self-disclosure on SNS increases their Parasocial Interaction (PI) with fans. In addition, when a celebrity is perceived as trustworthy, s/he would have a higher PI with fans. Meanwhile, celebrities’ self-disclosure was not associated with trustworthiness. Furthermore, time spent on SNS was also not associated with PI. This study also found that type of celebrity does not determine the degree of influence they have on the followers. People have almost same parasocial interaction with their favorite celebrity whether the celebrity is a singer, athlete, actor, or any other. Additionally, there is no specific social networking site on which people have a stronger PI with celebrities. PI with celebrities on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and the other platforms is almost the same