Social class, public self-awareness, and consumers’ heterogeneous attitude to AI machine anthropomorphism

Bibliographic Data

ID21621208
AuthorsBinbin Sun (0009-0005-8230-2145, Qingdao University), Yu Zhang (0000-0002-0059-270X, Qingdao University), Xuelei Meng (0000-0002-4243-3125, Qingdao University, corresponding author), Zihan Zhang (0000-0003-0976-1845, Qingdao University)
Year2025
Volume44
Issue11
Pages10561-10578
Publication date2025-06-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCurrent Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1046-1310 • E-ISSN: 1936-4733
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s12144-025-07872-2
OpenAlexW4410243623
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited45

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology has led to the gradual transformation of interpersonal interactions into human-AI interactions, and the differences between these two types of interactions have attracted widespread attention. Still, scholars have not yet agreed on consumers` responses to AI machine anthropomorphism. This paper explores the relationship between AI machine anthropomorphism and consumers’ usage intention based on the privacy computing theory and finds a U-shaped relationship between AI machine anthropomorphism and consumers’ usage intention, which is mediated by privacy concerns and public self-awareness and positively moderates the relationship. Consumers’ social class also influences their attitudes toward AI machine anthropomorphism, i.e., consumers from high social class show a high degree of AI machine anthropomorphism while those from low social class show favour for a low degree of AI machine anthropomorphism. This article enhances existing research by examining consumer characteristics through a granular lens

AI in Service Interactions · Computer Science · Digital Marketing and Social Media · Psychology · Social Psychology · Technology Adoption and User Behaviour · Artificial Intelligence

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access