A cross-sectional study to explore the association between parasocial interaction and big five personality traits...

Hallyu or Korean wave (K-wave) is the term used to describe diffusion and export of South Korean popular culture into the global market and includes music (K-pop), TV shows (K-drama), cuisine (K-cuisine), video games, and cartoons. The fandom for K-wave is increasing, but there is limited understanding on its parasocial relationships, personality traits, and media immersion (transportation) in the Indian context.

To explore the relationship between parasocial behavior, big five personality traits, and transportation among young adult K-wave fans.

This is a cross-sectional study conducted using Google forms, distributed through various social media platforms using the snowball technique with a sample size of 204 between ages 15 and 35 years. The scales used are Measure of Parasocial Relationships, Big five personality inventory, and Transportation scale - short form.

The mean age of the participants was 23.9 years. The majority were introduced by their friends (55.4%); the common platform for accessing the content is YouTube (42.6%). There was statistically significantly higher parasocial relationship exhibited by the female participants in all domains, except in the behavioral domain of MMPR. There was also a statistically significant moderate positive correlation between parasocial behavior and transportation.

The study offers insightful information on the ways that personality qualities and K-wave content consumption affect parasocial interactions between Korean wave enthusiasts in India.