Parasocial Enemyship

Social media has rapidly become a platform for people to consume content from an array of media figures, such as influencers, YouTubers, podcasters, or celebrities. Although we might assume people engage with content creators they enjoy or admire, there is a growing trend of people engaging with the content of those they actually dislike. This behaviour falls under the umbrella of negative parasocial relationships, bonds formed between audiences and disliked media figures. Across three studies we examine this specific form of negative parasocial relationship, which we call parasocial enemyship: people intentionally engaging with the content of a creator they actively dislike. Our data demonstrate that this phenomenon is prevalent across age, gender, ethnicity, and cultures. We investigate the motivations behind parasocial enemyship, identifying three distinct drives. These motivations clustered into themes of superiority (the need to feel better than the parasocial enemy), interest (the desire to understand the enemy), and fun (the desire to be entertained). Of these motivations, only the motivation to feel superior was consistently associated with Dark Triad traits (Psychopathy and Machiavellianism in particular). These results suggest that parasocial enemyship is a prevalent but nuanced behaviour, one that is not uniformly malevolent, and driven by diverse motivations.