Abstract
<p>The rapid proliferation of digital creator-audience interactions has fundamentally altered how political and social ideologies are disseminated and adopted. We conducted a qualitative study of 42 active YouTube viewers (ages 18-35) across North America and Europe using semi-structured interviews to examine the mechanics of ideological transition within parasocial environments. We propose the notion of affective entrapment: a state of psychological conditioning where the perceived intimacy of a creator-audience relationship is leveraged to bypass critical cognitive filters, facilitating the gradual adoption of fringe viewpoints. Our findings suggest that rather than fostering independent thought, the architecture of platform engagement creates a feedback loop where emotional validation is traded for ideological conformity. We demonstrate that the pursuit of authenticity often masks systematic manipulation, the simulation of friendship masks commercial agendas, and the promise of community masks the narrowing of intellectual horizons. Our results indicate that ideological radicalization is not merely a product of content consumption but a consequence of the affective labor performed by both creators and their audiences. These insights necessitate a re-evaluation of platform design and digital literacy frameworks to mitigate the risks of algorithmic and interpersonal manipulation in the attention economy.</p>