The Psychology Behind Relatable Celebrity: PR Strategy or Reality?

Do you have a favourite celebrity or social media influencer? If yes, then what do you think of them, and how do you feel when you scroll through their profiles or watch their interviews? Millions of people feel a deep emotional bond with celebrities they have never met, often viewing them as trusted, real-life friends. But have you ever wondered how this connection gets formed, or why it feels so genuine? These intense feelings and emotions are not accidental. Behind every relatable post, every interview, candid picture and behind-the-scenes clip is a public relations (PR) team using carefully chosen psychological tools to craft that relatable personality.

For example, actress Jahnvi Kapoor once mentioned in an interview on The Kapil Sharma Show that she is very conscious about spending money and even scolds her mother for buying expensive towels. Similarly, many celebrities are often seen wearing simple clothes such as chikankari kurtis or casual streetwear to appear relatable to young audiences. These small details help create the image of an ordinary, relatable person despite their extraordinary lifestyle. This article explores how psychological processes like parasocial interaction, impression management, the halo effect and mere exposure are used in celebrity image-making to shape public perception and create a celebrity image. 

Read More: The Psychology Behind Celebrity Obsession

The One-Sided Friendship

There was a time when celebrities’ lives were personal, and their perception was based on the little information available in the public domain. But with the rise of television, social media platforms, and the competition to stay relevant and profitable, celebrities hire PR (public relations) teams to create a public image. Celebrities today are not simply entertainers but highly planned psychological brands, created using different psychological tools to build deep emotional connection and loyalty. 

The most powerful tool used in building this attachment/connection is the parasocial relationship, first identified by sociologists Donald Horton and R. Richard Wohl (1956). A parasocial relationship is a one-sided emotional bond in which a fan invests their time, energy and trust in a celebrity or influencer who is unaware of their existence. To make this connection strong, PR teams share celebrities real life glimpses, unfiltered pictures, their real-life struggles and all of these are carefully selected to make the celebrity look more human and like them. Fans consume these updates daily on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, which gradually creates an illusion of reciprocity.

Fans feel they are in a two-way relationship with their favourite celebrity (Reinikainen et al., 2020). This perceived connection hugely benefits the celebrity. Because fans trust the celebrity as they would a close friend, they buy products endorsed by the celebrities, copy their lifestyles, mimic their habits and even defend or take violent action during controversies or to show they love and affection for them.

Research shows that adolescents are especially prone to this effect because they are still forming their identities and searching for role models (Rajan & Kumar, 2021). These parasocial relations feel like emotionally safe friendships because they are one-sided; there is no conflict, no rejection, and no effort required to build or sustain a relationship like a real relationship. Parasocial bonds tap into a fundamental human need for belonging and social connection. 

Read More: The Social Brain: Neuroscience of Human Connection and Mental Health

The Relatable Authentic Celebrity

The celebrity relatability is not an accident; it takes a lot of time, effort and planning. Sociologist Erving Goffman (1959) described how people manage their perception by the information they present about themselves. He compared social life to a theatrical performance. In public celebrity behave in ways that match their audience’s expectations, and in reality, they may behave completely differently.

They carefully show a glimpse of their life and information regarding them, which suits their narrative. For a celebrity, the PR team acts as the off-stage director of this performance. They carefully select physical settings and visual props like a simple hoodie, a beloved dog, and a home kitchen to send specific signals about the celebrity’s down-to-earth character. Stage-candid photographs and scripted interviews are used to make the audience believe that they are seeing the celebrity’s true self. 

Social media amplifies this performance, because there is a time delay between creating and posting content, celebrities can edit, filter and polish their image and remove any unwanted aspect before the audience even sees it. During promotions, brand endorsement and scandal media training and body language coaching help a celebrity deliver and present a real, trustworthy and curated performance. By controlling this public image thoroughly, PR teams can preserve and even strengthen public perception and trust, even when a celebrity’s private action contradicts their public persona. 

Read More: Celebrity Worship Syndrome

Replacing a real connection with a virtual connection

Beyond storytelling and self-presentation, PR teams exploit how the human brain works. The mere exposure effect: the simple finding that the more often we see something, the more familiar and trustworthy it feels (Zajonc, 1968). PR teams use this effect and try to make the celebrity constantly visible through ads, reels, news feeds, posts and interviews simultaneously. These interactions don’t have to be meaningful. The constant repetition builds a sense of comfort and familiarity with the celebrity’s face, voice and values. 

Once familiarity and comfort are established, the halo effect takes over. Introduced by psychologist Edward Thorndike (1920), the halo effect is a cognitive bias assuming that if they are good in one aspect, they must be good at other unrelated things too. For example, if someone is attractive, they also must have good handwriting. PR teams actively exploit this cognitive bias by showcasing a celebrity’s charity work, acts of kindness and positive aspects to create an overall positive image that shields the celebrity from any scrutiny. This is why consumers buy the product their favourite celebrity promotes, without any analysis or second thought. 

However, this constant exposure to a curated public image has a real psychological cost. According to evolutionary anthropologist Robin Dunbar, the human brain has an approximate capacity to manage around 150 stable social relationships at any given time, a biological limit tied to the size of our neocortex (Dunbar, 2010). Because there is a limit, the emotional energy spent on parasocial connections with celebrities can replace real-world friendships, which makes people isolated in the real world despite feeling that they are connected. (Henderson 2025; Marin 2024).

Constantly seeing these highly planned lifestyles can trigger severe mental distress. Under Leon Festinger’s (1954) theory, humans have an innate drive to evaluate their self-worth by comparing themselves to others. When fans see their favourite celebrity’s posts and interviews, they try to live that lifestyle themselves and adopt their habits, which results in comparison, but people don’t realise that they are comparing themselves against a highly curated image, and when they fail to match that image, a feeling of low self-esteem and inadequacy takes over.

Conclusion

This feeling of genuine connection and friendship with a celebrity is not an accident but a sophisticated strategy, used by PR teams that use psychologically driven processes to make a relatable celebrity image and ultimately monetise it to earn profit. With the curated candid conversation, posts and giving controlled positive information repeatedly, PR teams create a public image that feels real and trustworthy even though they are carefully planned. 

But the purpose of understanding these strategies is not to demonise celebrities or the teams that shape their images, after all, managing public perception is a part of the entertainment industry. Furthermore, having a favourite celebrity who entertains and inspires people to become a better version of themselves can be a deeply positive experience. The real issue is that fans become so heavily invested that their critical thinking takes a backseat. When fans start blindly adopting habits, purchasing products, defending problematic behaviour, and comparing themselves and allowing these one-sided parasocial relationships to replace real-world connections, the boundary between admiration and dependency becomes blurred.

Becoming aware of the psychological strategies used by PR teams is not about taking the joy away from fandom. But rather it is a first practical step toward self-protection. By understanding these dynamics and strategies, individuals can enjoy media figures mindfully while prioritising and building healthy connections.

References +

• Dunbar, R. I. M. (2010). How many friends does one person need?: Dunbar’s number and other evolutionary quirks. Faber & Faber. 
• Goffman, E. (1959). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Anchor Books. 
• Henderson, L. (2025). The crowding-out effect: Parasocial relationships and real-world isolation in young adults. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 42(3), 145–162. 
• Horton, D., & Wohl, R. R. (1956). Mass communication and para-social interaction: Observations on intimacy at a distance. Psychiatry, 19(3), 215–229. https://doi.org/10.1080/00332747.1956.11023049 
• Marin, A. (2024). Digital intimacy, biological limits: Testing relationship displacement in the influencer era. Human Communication Research, 50(2), 211–228. 
• Rajan, S., & Kumar, D. (2021). Identity formation and parasocial attachment among digital-native adolescents. Indian Journal of Psychological Science, 12(1), 45–58. 
• Reinikainen, H., Munnukka, J., Maity, D., & Luoma-aho, V. (2020). ’You really are my friend’ – How parasocial relationships with influencers impact brand endorsement effectiveness. Journal of Marketing Management, 36(3-4), 279–298. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2019.1708560 
• Thorndike, E. L. (1920). A constant error in psychological ratings. Journal of Applied Psychology, 4(1), 25–29. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0071663 
• Zajonc, R. B. (1968). Attitudinal effects of mere exposure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 9(2, Pt. 2), 1–270. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0025848