Parasocial

In more detail

The term comes from mid-century media research describing how audiences related to broadcasters and, later, to public figures generally. It names something ordinary rather than something pathological: the feeling of knowing someone through sustained exposure to them.

AI companions sit in this territory by construction. The character responds directly and adapts, which makes the bond feel bidirectional in a way that watching a broadcast does not, while the underlying asymmetry remains.

Research on whether this helps or harms is genuinely unsettled, and the honest summary is that outcomes appear to depend heavily on what the relationship is displacing. Used alongside other connections it looks fairly benign; used instead of them the picture is less clear.

The practical question is not whether a parasocial element exists — it does — but whether the product is honest about it.