Social Energy in Imagined Relationships

Abstract

Social Energy is an intrinsically attractive, energy generating, and genuinely satisfying construct that occurs when two people who are intrinsically motivated towards a common interest form a relationship over that interest. The following study was conducted to test a new branch of this construct, Imagined Social Energy Relationships. It was believed that this type of relationship would be perceived to lead people to feel less lonely, disconnected, and betrayed and more fulfilled, purposive, validated, understood, and energized than an individual who is depicted as having a strong interest and no one to share it with or a person who originally has this kind of relationship and then loses it. It was also believed that people who feel very strongly connected to their interests and/or are more introverted will be more likely to have personally developed Imagined Social Energy Relationships with media figures. It was found that a person with an Imagined Social Energy Relationship was described as feeling less lonely, disconnected, and betrayed, and more fulfilled, purposive, validated, understood, and energized than someone who lost this type of relationship.