Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0009-0002-8502-8186

Semester

Summer

Date of Graduation

2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

PhD

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Communication Studies

Committee Chair

Elizabeth Cohen

Committee Member

Christine Kunkle

Committee Member

Megan Vendemia

Committee Member

Karen Shackleford

Abstract

This dissertation examined the link between media multitasking behaviors and the subsequent enhancement of narrative engagement and parasocial relationships with podcast hosts. Research on parasocial relationships has long established that people can develop strong pseudo relationships through aural media, such as radio and podcasts (e.g., Horton & Wohl, 1956). This has often been attributed to the charismatic nature of hosts on audio programs (e.g., Schlütz and Hedder, 2022; Perks & Turner, 2019; Heiselberg & Have 2023), however, the ability of people to listen while they engage in other tasks (e.g., driving or doing chores) can also enhance parasocial bonds. One path for parasocial relationships is narrative engagement. When people engage in visual or motor tasks, they can also listen without overburdening their attention (Lee & Taatgen, 2019; Baumgartner & Wiradhany, 2022). In fact, listeners may actively immerse themselves in audio narratives while they engage in order to cognitively escape from attending to other less pleasant tasks. Higher levels of narrative engagement should increase parasocial relationships (Tukachinksy et al., 2020; Shedlosky-Shoemaker et al., 2014; Gabriel et al., 2018; Erickson et al., 2019). Consistent with research on interpersonal relationships, (Girme et al., 2014; Farrell et al., 2014), this study examined the possibility that engaging shared experiences while listening to a podcast host can increase feelings of closeness to them. Multitasking was expected to exert a direct effect on parasocial relationships with podcast hosts. An experiment was conducted in which 98 participants were randomly assigned to a t-shirt-folding chore or control while listening to a clip from the podcast, Armchair Expert: Armchair Anonymous. Afterwards, participants completed a survey assessing their narrative engagement and parasocial relationship strength. The goal of this dissertation was to examine the effect of multitasking on PSRs with male and female podcast hosts, Dax Shephard and Monica Padman. Due to an inconsistency in the administration of the experiment between conditions that affected the extent to which participants were engaged, the internal validity of the study was compromised, and the results should be in interpreted with caution. These results showed that although the folding chore did increase people’s perception of their own multitasking, participants assigned to this condition were no more or less narratively transported than those who were not. There was, however, a direct effect of the multitasking condition on parasocial relationship strength—with the female podcast host but not the other. However, it was not in the predicted direction. Participants in the multitasking condition ended up reporting lower parasocial relationship strength with Monica compared to those in the no multitasking condition. Supplemental analyses showed that trait boredom moderated this effect, such that as people’s trait boredom increased, the negative effect of the multitasking condition on parasocial relationship strength with Monica decreased. However, this interaction was only significant at low to moderate levels of trait boredom. Contrary to prior research finding multitasking and narrative engagement to be ill-matched (Brumby et al., 2014; Zwarun & Hall, 2012), the lack of an effect of multitasking on transportation lends tentative support to the idea that multitasking is not necessarily incompatible with transportation (Woods et al., 2017; Riggs & Knoblock-Westerwick, 2024; Scherer & Cohen, 2024) Additionally, these findings shed light on the relationship PSR strength and multitasking. Because participants who sat without distraction had greater PSR than those who performed a chore while listening reported greater PSR, this indicates that having fewer attentional demands during media consumption can be more conducive to parasocial intimacy (Schlütz and Hedder, 2022; Lieberman et al., 2022). Finally, consistent with previous findings linking trait boredom to difficulty focusing (Struk et al., 2017; Drody et al., 2022), these results indicate that the negative effect of multitasking on PSR is limited to those who are relatively low in trait boredom. Presumably, those who exhibited higher levels of boredom had difficulty focusing to cultivate a sense of intimacy during listening, regardless of condition.

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