The present study investigates the influence of celebrities' romantic relationship announcements on their romance fans and friendship fans. In a between-subjects design study, college students were asked to imagine their relationship closeness, emotional reactions, and behavioral responses toward celebrities' romantic relationship announcements. Romance fans with stronger parasocial love expected lower relationship closeness and more negative emotional reactions. In contrast to friendship fans, romance fans expected lower relationship closeness and more negative emotional reactions. Friendship fans expected more positive emotional reactions in contrast to romance fans. Friendship fans were less likely than romance fans to exhibit destructive behavioral responses to the imagined announcements. Public Policy Relevance StatementThis study shows that imagined romantic relationship announcements of celebrities can influence audiences in terms of their expected relationship closeness, emotional reactions, and behavioral reactions. However, the influence differs by whether the audiences view the celebrities as lovers or friends.

The present study examined people’s expected reactions to their beloved ones’ romantic relationship announcements in parasocial love (PSL) and unrequited love (UL). In a between-subjects design study, 330 college students in China were asked to name a media figure with whom they had PSL or someone they knew in person who had been their UL object. Then they reported their expected negative emotional reactions, closeness reduction, and coping strategies if the media figure or the love object announces romantic relationship involvement. PSL was found to be lower than UL in strength. People with stronger PSL and UL are expected to have more negative emotional reactions. People in PSL reported less negative emotional reactions and less closeness reduction in contrast to their counterparts in UL. The likeliness to adopt different coping strategies varied by the type of relationship and gender.