The following paper reviews the article “Love makes you real: Favorite Television characters are perceived as ‘real’ in a social facilitation paradigm” by Gardner and Knowles. The paper is divided into four main sections. The first section briefly overviews the theories which led to the institution of this research study, including the theories being tested, interesting findings from the review of literature, and the hypotheses being tested. The second section discusses the methodology of the study conducted. This is followed by a discussion of the results and conclusions of the study in the third section. The last section summarizes the findings and the limitations of the study and further describes what future studies can add to the findings of the existing study.
Introduction
This research paper revolves around three very interesting concepts of psychology viz. anthropomorphism, parasocial interaction, and the concept of social facilitation and inhibition.
The notion of anthropomorphism and its existence has been subject to contemplation and critique for a long time and over a decade now it has been established by researchers, including Mitchell et al, that the tendency to attribute human characteristics and emotions to inanimate or non-human objects, does exist (qtd. in Gardner). However, the arena of what explains anthropomorphism and the factors influencing it has been underexplored and the query that whether it is the qualities and morphological characteristics of the target, the perceiver’s feelings about the target, or an interplay of both these factors, that influence this phenomenon, is yet to be answered.
Studies by Mitchell et al and DiSalvo et al have established the fact that morphological similarities to humans in targets promote anthropomorphism. It is interesting to note that, as proved by Luo and Baillargeon, human-like movements in an inanimate object also promote anthropomorphism towards that object (qtd. in Gardner). It has been assumed that apart from these factors, perceivers’ feelings of attachment towards the target also encourage anthropomorphism but the studies conducted to date have yielded limited results since they are influenced by several confounding factors including familiarity and similarity of the target to self.
Another interesting concept which was a part of this study was that of parasocial interaction. Parasocial interaction has been defined by Horton and Wohl as the one-sided relationship with media figures and was viewed by them as a strategy to provide ‘the socially and psychologically isolated with a chance to enjoy the elixir of sociability’ (qtd. in Gardner). Several studies support this view and have shown a positive correlation between the belonging needs of individuals and their tendency to develop parasocial interactions.
Recently, Epley et al proposed a three-factor model for anthropomorphism which integrated the role of perceiver feelings and social needs in addition to the target characteristics as factors influencing anthropomorphism (qtd. in Gardner).
Yet another intriguing idea discussed by the researchers is that of social facilitation and inhibition. This was proposed by Triplett over a century ago and a subsequent meta-analysis by Bond and Titus showed that the presence of an audience leads to facilitation of performance on well-learned tasks and inhibition of novel tasks (qtd. in Gardner).
Keeping in view the above-mentioned concepts, the researchers undertook this study to determine the association between feelings of affection and perception of realness in the context of parasocial relationships, while controlling for familiarity as a confounding factor. They also intended to establish whether exposure to favorite characters, as opposed to non-favorite characters, leads to social facilitation or inhibition.
It was hypothesized that affection towards favorite fictional TV characters would lead to them being perceived as more real in comparison to non-favorite characters. Moreover, assuming that perception of realness leads to altered behavior patterns while in the presence of an audience, the presence of the favorite character in the surroundings would lead to social facilitation and inhibition.
Methods
To prove the hypotheses mentioned above the researchers conducted two studies. The first study aimed at exploring the relationship between liking and perception of the realness of the character. It was a case-control study. The study population comprised of 199 undergraduates out of which 105 were females and 75 were males while 19 were unreported. A questionnaire-based survey was conducted in the Introduction to Psychology class in which participants were required to choose a favorite and non-favorite character from the same show. They were then randomly assigned to two study groups i.e. those assigned to their favorite character and those assigned to non-favorite characters. Participants in both groups were required to answer questions in reference to the character they were assigned. These questions varied in content. There were 5 questions regarding the subjects’ perceptions of the realness of the character, 9 questions addressing interpersonal liking, 9 questions pertaining to familiarity and knowledge about the character and 2 questions regarding perceived similarity to the character. The questionnaire included items adapted from the parasocial interaction scale (Rubin et al 1985) and some newly constructed items. Answers were scored on a 5 item (from 1: strongly disagree -5: strongly agree) Likert scale.
The second study was performed to observe the phenomenon of social facilitation and inhibition in the presence of an audience. Using a Yoked study design, 71 undergraduates with 46 females and 25 males were enrolled in the study. The participants were first involved in a pretesting session in which they were required to name a favorite television character. They were then required to perform two two-minute copying tasks with their dominant and non dominant hands, in the presence of a television character (in the form of their desktop picture), and their performances were assessed.
To minimize idiosyncratic differences, half of the participants had a picture of their favorite character displayed on the desktop while the other half had a picture of another participant’s favorite character. The participants were assured that the presence of the television character as desktop pictures was purely incidental. Participants were also assessed for their current mood using the PANAS scale and were required to complete a questionnaire regarding their demographic data and their dominant hand.
Results and Discussion
The first study showed that human characters (85 %) were more commonly regarded as favorites as compared to animated characters (15%). Familiarity and knowledge were found to be not significantly different in both groups regardless of whether the character was a favorite or not or whether it was human or animated. The perceived realness was found to be greater for favorite characters as well as for human characters in comparison to animated ones (p< 0.5 and F=4.84 and 14.24 respectively). Similarly, likeness and similarity were also found to be greater for favorite characters as well as for human characters (p< 0.5).
Linear regression was performed to assess the relation of likeness to the perception of realness without the influence of knowledge and familiarity and the relation was found to be significant. These results are suggestive of the ‘Loves make u real’ hypothesis. However, the study had certain limitations. Since the questionnaire was self-reported, demand acts as a confounding variable. Secondly, the characters were not distributed equally in both groups therefore idiosyncratic differences could be considered to account for the differences in the study groups.
The results of the second study showed that mood and task order did not influence performance. The study participants performed better on well-learned tasks as compared to novel tasks and the presence of a favorite character as opposed to a non-favorite about, one facilitated performance on the well-learned tasks while inhibited performance on novel tasks. The yoke study design helped in overcoming any idiosyncratic differences. Since the participants were made to believe that they were participating in a motor skills study, they were unaware of the nature of the study, and therefore, the confounding factor of demand was controlled
Based on these findings, the phenomenon of social facilitation can be used to reinforce positive behaviors in socially deprived individuals who end up developing anthropomorphism. This can eventually help them overcome their low self-esteem and develop confidence in themselves. Such individuals can eventually be encouraged to give up these anthropomorphic relationships and form real relationships once they develop enough confidence. Similarly, parasocial relationships can be constructively be used. For instance, if individuals have parasocial interactions with a certain character, the positive behaviors of that character can be used to motivate the individual to adopt similar positive behaviors and traits.
Summary
These studies thereby establish that feelings of affection towards the target lead to a greater perception of the realness of the target. Furthermore, the studies prove that this perception of realness leads to the facilitation of well-learned tasks and inhibition of novel tasks in the presence of the target. However, since both the studies were based on idiographic reports a temporal relationship between likeness and the perception of reality cannot be established because it is equally likely that characters that seemed more real were liked more by the perceiver.
Further research in this area can address factors that predispose certain individuals to anthropomorphism. Also, the relationship between social deprivation, belonging needs, and a tendency towards anthropomorphism needs to be studied. Further studies can also focus on the effect of anthropomorphism and parasocial interaction on mood and self-esteem and whether such relationships help in alleviating low self-esteem and social isolation.
Works Cited
Gardner, Wendi L “Love makes you real: Favorite Television characters are perceived as ‘real’ in a social facilitation paradigm” Social Cognition, 26(2), 156-168