R. Richard Wohl

R. Richard Wohl

R. Richard Wohl is the co-author, with Donald Horton, of the 1956 paper in the journal Psychiatry that introduced the term para-social interaction. The paper's subtitle, observations on intimacy at a distance, describes the one-sided closeness the term names.

Who they are

Wohl's name is attached to this page through one paper, published in Psychiatry in 1956 with Horton as co-author. This page rests on that one paper. His wider career, affiliations and other publications have not been checked against a source here, and no claim is made about them.

Key papers

Key ideas

What the 1956 paper introduced

The paper gave a name, para-social interaction, to the one-sided sense of closeness an audience member can feel toward a media performer. The subtitle frames it as intimacy at a distance.

Where the term went next

The term was later narrowed and measured. Dibble, Hartmann and a colleague treat parasocial interaction as a within-viewing experience of mutual awareness and parasocial relationship as the longer attachment. Reinikainen and colleagues applied the relationship idea to influencer marketing in 2020.

Sources

  1. Horton, D., & Wohl, R. R. (1956). 'Mass communication and para-social interaction: Observations on intimacy at a distance.' Psychiatry, 19(3), 215-229. doi:10.1080/00332747.1956.11023049