The death of famous people upsets us. Psychology and media explain the parasocial mourning and the collective emotion that derives from it.
In the last hours the news of the death suddenin a road accident, of Diogo Jotastriker of Liverpool and the Portuguese national team, immediately bounced on all means of communication, traditional and not. A tragic event that hit not only the world of football, but millions of ordinary people, who did not know him personally but felt him, in some way, part of their lives.
In an era of digital connections and media bonds, the disappearance of a figure public generates a pain collective as intense as real. Why do we feel suffering for those who, after all, have not been part of our daily life?
The role of social media in this context is, second Alessandra Micalizzisociologist and psychologist, who has tackled the theme several times in some of his articles, that of building a collective memory and sharing pain in a ritualized way; But emotional overexposure can interfere with the mourning processing process.
What is parasocial mourning and because it really makes us suffer
The Unilateral affective phenomenon which develops between the public and actors, singers, sportsmen etc., when a celebrity is missing has a name: parasocial mourning. The term was coined in the 1950s by Donald Horton and Richard Wohl. Although one -way, this bond can activate emotional responses authentic And deep. When the public person dies, the sense of loss can be comparable to that experienced for the death of someone close.
A study conducted by Eyal and Cohen in 2006 showed that the breakdown of a parasocial report can generate emotions similar to those of mourning realactivating very similar processing processes on the psychological level.
Who suffers most for the death of a celebrity? The role of age, empathy and personality
Of course, not everyone reaches the same way. The intensity of the pain varies according to several factors: theage (adolescents are particularly vulnerable), the personality (especially in subjects with high levels of empathy or anxious attachment), lo style Of life and the type. Some studies indicate, for example, that women tend to be on average more emotionally involved in these dynamics (Giles, 2002).
Because the death of a sportsman like Diogo Jota strikes more
Also the type of celebrity He has a weight: the death of an athlete like Jota strikes more because it breaks an image of strength, youth and invincibility.
Similar events such as the disappearance sudden of the American Cestitsta Kobe Bryant or that of the Italian footballer David Astorihave generated global reactions. Athletes embody in fact collective ideals of energydedication and success: their loss unconsciously undermines our trust in the stability of the world.
According to Brown, Basil and Bocarnea (2003), the dead sudden And tragic Public figures generate stronger emotional reactions, especially if they concern young people, loved and charismatic.
Social and media amplify collective pain for celebrities
There answer media contributes to strengthening and multiplying this involvement. While traditional media, such as radio And TVbuild a ritual and public narrative of the loss, i social network They transform mourning into shared emotional participation. Publish a post, phrase or photo becomes a collective gesture of processing symbolic. And often, in that sharing, sense, comfort and connection are sought.
But what do we really cry? Not only the person, but what that figure represented for us: a phase of life, an idea, an emotional identification. Celebrities accompany our growth, give voice to our dreams, become part of our daily imagination.
As they observed in the past Richard Dyer And Carolyn Kitch – the first one a scholar of the media and celebrities, the second expert teacher of collective memory in the media – there death of a figure public It is also a cultural event. It marks the end of an era, the symbolic closure of a collective chapter. We therefore cry not only a family face, but a part of ourselves.
In the case of Diogo Jota, it is not just the loss of a footballer. For many, he represented commitment, passion and resilience. And when such a figure fails, we discover more fragile, more exposed, more alone. Therefore the parasocial mourning It is a legitimate form of pain, which reminds us, if necessary, that bonds do not need reciprocity to be significant.
