research

I study how parasocial relationships, the one-sided emotional connections people form with media figures, shape beliefs, attitudes, and behavior.

psychology of followership

deification & vilification

Symbolic Person Perception: A Theory of Deification and Vilification of Public Personas

with Alin Coman

Public figures are sometimes perceived as more than individuals with particular traits or accomplishments; they come to represent broader identities, values, ideals, or threats. This theory paper introduces symbolic person perception as a framework for understanding how such representations develop, distinguishing between what a perceiver believes a person is like and what that person is understood to represent. Within this framework, deification is the perception of a figure as an exceptional embodiment of a sacred ideal, and vilification as an exceptional embodiment of a broader threat. The framework generates predictions about which information perceivers treat as revealing of character, how they respond when a figure contradicts what they represent, and how symbolic meaning shapes behavior toward public figures.

How Admiration and Abhorrence Shape Moral Judgments of Public Figure Evaluations and Transgressions

with Alin Coman

How do prior impressions of public figures shape moral judgment when those figures behave in unexpected ways? Across two preregistered studies, participants nominated and ranked public figures they admired or detested, then evaluated those figures performing moral violations or virtuous acts that varied in intensity. The findings reveal an asymmetry: admiration did little to soften judgments of wrongdoing, whereas detestation reduced the moral credit assigned to virtuous behavior. Identification with a figure, rather than the extremity of admiration or detestation, was associated with more favorable judgments of both the act and the actor.

Political Charisma as Community-Level Deification

with Jack Citrin

Political charisma is often described as though it resides in the leader, yet classic theories of charismatic authority suggest that it depends on followers' recognition of a leader's extraordinary qualities. This project proposes that charismatic political authority can emerge through the interaction of individual symbolic person perception and collective symbolic reinforcement, as follower communities construct, negotiate, and reinforce shared understandings of what a leader represents. It examines when this collective process elevates leaders into positions of exceptional moral or symbolic significance, and how it shapes followers' interpretations of their behavior and recognition of their political authority.

one-sided bonds

parasocial relationships

How Mental Representations and Expectation Violations Alter Evaluations of Public Figures

with Anuj Shah

This project examines how the structure of people's beliefs about a public figure shapes what they expect that figure to do. In a preregistered study, stronger connectivity among beliefs about an influencer's artist identity predicted greater expectations of identity-consistent behavior and lower expectations of identity-inconsistent behavior. Ongoing work examines how contradictory behavior by influencers fragments these belief networks.

Parasocial Trust and the Architecture of Belief Systems

with Alin Coman

Human beliefs are not isolated propositions but parts of an interconnected network that shapes how individuals interpret new information. Building on belief network frameworks and theories of parasocial influence, this project tests whether exposing Republicans to contradictory statements from a trusted figure, Donald Trump, weakens targeted peripheral beliefs and whether those shifts cascade to more strongly held convictions. Brief exposure to contradictions weakened peripheral beliefs, and when a peripheral belief weakened and its ties to central beliefs loosened, the change rippled inward to core convictions. Stronger parasocial relationships increased epistemic trust in Trump, though trust did not account for belief change.

Do Expectation Violations Shape Connection? Comparing Close, Parasocial, and Human-AI Relationships

with Rose E. Guingrich and Alin Coman

An important part of forming relationships involves creating expectations about how another person or entity will think, respond, and behave. Although prediction error has been examined in the context of social connection, less is known about whether it carries the same meaning across close interpersonal, parasocial, and human-AI relationships. Because these relationships differ in reciprocity and responsiveness, the same level of prediction error may not carry the same relational meaning across them. By comparing them directly, this project clarifies when expectation violation is linked to closeness and when perceived intimacy may emerge without mutuality.

networks & communities

collective dynamics

A Network Mapping of the Manosphere Ecosystem

with Chardon Murray, Sydney Garcia, and Alin Coman

This project maps the network structure of online manosphere communities, examining how communities are organized and how they interact with one another. A second study, embedded within the network map, examines how followers interpret interactions among creators. The project is conducted in collaboration with Diverting Hate.