The invention of mass broadcasting allowed people all around the globe to experience different cultures, languages, and worldviews, without the need for travel. More recently, due to the development of the internet and especially the popularisation of social media, we are now also able to directly interact, …

Previous research largely supports the notion that mediated contact and engagement with minority characters can improve viewers’ real-life minority attitudes. However, it is unclear to what extent different forms of media engagement such as parasocial friendship and wishful identification are linked …

Current understandings of similarity with media characters often focus on visible attributes including gender and race, yet overlook deep-level characteristics such as personality, attitudes, and experiences. In the present research, we address this limitation and develop and validate the Character Recognizability …