A warm TV can drive away feelings of loneliness and
rejection
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Not all technology meets human needs, and some technologies provide
only the illusion of having met your needs.
But new research by psychologists at the University at Buffalo and
Miami University, Ohio, indicates that illusionary relationships
with the characters and personalities on favorite TV shows can
provide people with feelings of belonging, even in the face of low
self esteem or after being rejected by friends or family
members.
The findings are described in four studies published in the current
issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
"The research provides evidence for the 'social surrogacy
hypothesis,' which holds that humans can use technologies, like
television, to provide the experience of belonging when no real
belongingness has been experienced," says one of the study's
authors, Shira Gabriel, Ph.D., UB assistant professor of
psychology.
"We also argue that other commonplace technologies such as movies,
music or interactive video games, as well as television, can
fulfill this need."
Shira's co-authors are Jaye L. Derrick, Ph.D., postdoctoral
associate and adjunct instructor of psychology at UB, and Kurt
Hugenberg, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology at Miami
University.
The first study, of 701 undergraduate students, used the Loneliness
Activities Scale and the Likelihood of Feeling Lonely Scale to find
that subjects reported tuning to favored television programs when
they felt lonely and felt less lonely when viewing those
programs.
Study 2 used essays to experimentally manipulate the belongingness
needs of 102 undergraduate subjects and assess the importance of
their favored television programs when those needs were stimulated.
Participants whose belongingness needs were aroused reveled longer
in their descriptions of favored television programs than in
descriptions of non-favored programs, the study found.
Study 3 of 116 participants employed the Rosenberg Self-Esteem
Scale, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule and an eight-item
measure of feelings of rejection to find that thinking about
favored television programs buffered subjects against drops in
self-esteem, increases in negative mood and feelings of rejection
commonly elicited by threats to close relationships.
Study 4 asked 222 participants to write a 10-minute essay about
their favorite television program, and then to write about programs
they watch "when nothing else is on," or about experiencing an
academic achievement. They were then asked to verbally describe
what they had written in as much detail as possible.
After writing about favored television programs, the subjects
verbally expressed fewer feelings of loneliness or exclusion than
when verbally describing either of the two control situations
(essays about programs watched when nothing else is on, academic
achievement). This is evidence, say the researchers, that
illusionary or "parasocial" relationships with television
characters or personalities can ease belongingness needs.
It remains an open question, say the researchers, whether social
surrogacy suppresses belongingness needs or actually fulfills them,
and they acknowledge that the kind of social surrogacy provoked by
these programs can be a poor substitution for "real" human-to-human
experience.
"Turning one's back on family and friends for the solace of
television may be maladaptive and leave a person with fewer
resources over time," says UB's Derrick, "but for those who have
difficulty experiencing social interaction because of physical or
environmental constraints, technologically induced belongingness
may offer comfort."
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University at Buffalo
Thanks to University at Buffalo for this article.