Measuring the feeling of distant intimacy with political figures across cultures: Development, construct validity, factor replicability, and measurement invariance of the parasocial relationship with political figures (PSR-P) scale

Parasocial theory views ordinary people’s emotional bonding with political figures as a form of parasocial relationships. Despite the insights it offers, the existing measures of parasocial relationship have been criticised conceptually and psychometrically. We developed a new scale of parasocial relationship with political figures (PSR-P) and examined the construct validity, factor replicability and measurement invariance based on samples from culturally and politically diverse countries (i.e., Indonesia, New Zealand, and the US). In three studies using a panel of experts (N = 20; Study 1), a convenience adult sample (N = 212; Study 2), and representative and cross-cultural sample groups (N = 897; Study 3), we found that the four-item PSR-R scale provides satisfying construct validity, as well as a replicable factor structure and scalar invariance across countries. The PSR-P scale can be utilised to advance the measurement and application of parasocial theory in the field of social and political psychology.