The Relationship between Celebrity Worship and Parasocial Interaction on Emerging Adult

The ease of interacting with idols all the time allows fans to develop idol worshiping behavior. When fans have developed idol worship behavior, they tend to develop a parasocial interaction with their idols. This study aimed to determine the relationship between celebrity worship and parasocial interaction on emerging adults. This study employed the quantitative method with incidental sampling technique. A total of 401 emerging adults aged 18-25 years, having an idol and students at universities in banda aceh involved in this study. The celebrity attitude scale (α = 0.918) and the celebrity appeal questionnaire (α = 0,828) were modified for data collection tools. Product-moment correlation was used for data analysis. The results of this study indicate that there was a relationship between idol worship and parasocial interaction in emerging adults (r = 0.347) with the significance value of (p = 0,000), meaning that the higher the level of idol worship developed by individuals, the higher the possibility of individual to develop interaction parasocial with his idol.