A Deep Dive into Consumer-Influencer Parasocial Relationships: An Analysis of Dynamic Trajectories

This article presents a study designed to investigate and map dynamic trajectories of consumer-influencer relationships. Consumers described experiences related to the initiation and evolution of their relationships with their most loved influencers and most hated influencers. Participants, pertaining to different generations, were asked to graphically trace the course of their feelings toward their currently most loved influencers and to recall the events that influenced those feelings. Similarly, participants were asked to do the same for the most hated influencers. The path towards love followed five distinct trajectories. The path towards influencer hate followed three distinct paths. The formative experiences shaping these trajectories often include personal individual experiences that cannot be controlled by marketers