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Mindful and mindless anthropomorphism: How to facilitate consumer comprehension towards new products

Mindful and mindless anthropomorphism: How to facilitate consumer comprehension towards new products
Mindful and mindless anthropomorphism: How to facilitate consumer comprehension towards new products
Individual’s perception of anthropomorphic platforms in promotion of really new products or novel innovations has not been examined fully. There are contradictions in the academic literature on how various presentations of social cues are perceived by audience mindlessly or mindfully. Perceived mindful and mindless anthropomorphism are explored in this study in order to understand its effect on individuals’ attitude, purchase intention and comprehension of new products. A single factor between-subject design using two innovative products and websites with four levels of social cues (voice, language, interactivity and social role) was used. Five hundred participants took part in the main experiment. Participants were randomly assigned to each experimental group. The analysis indicated that a human-like avatar is preferred by individuals over static avatar and perceived higher mindlessly. Interactive content didn’t improve individuals’ perceived mindless anthropomorphism. There was no significant increase in individuals’ mindful anthropomorphism in any condition. The study indicated perceived mindless anthropomorphism results into better comprehension, attitude and purchase intention towards really new products.
Perceived anthropomorphism, avatars, innovation, social cues
0219-8770
Ashleigh, Melanie
f2a64ca7-435b-4ad7-8db5-33b735766e46
Seyed Esfahani, Mona
c5384413-dd87-457b-b952-6df231053c42
Reynolds, Nina
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Ashleigh, Melanie
f2a64ca7-435b-4ad7-8db5-33b735766e46
Seyed Esfahani, Mona
c5384413-dd87-457b-b952-6df231053c42
Reynolds, Nina
42f01fba-516f-4265-83e9-d0b37806830f

Ashleigh, Melanie, Seyed Esfahani, Mona and Reynolds, Nina (2020) Mindful and mindless anthropomorphism: How to facilitate consumer comprehension towards new products. International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management, 17 (3), [2050016]. (doi:10.1142/S0219877020500169).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Individual’s perception of anthropomorphic platforms in promotion of really new products or novel innovations has not been examined fully. There are contradictions in the academic literature on how various presentations of social cues are perceived by audience mindlessly or mindfully. Perceived mindful and mindless anthropomorphism are explored in this study in order to understand its effect on individuals’ attitude, purchase intention and comprehension of new products. A single factor between-subject design using two innovative products and websites with four levels of social cues (voice, language, interactivity and social role) was used. Five hundred participants took part in the main experiment. Participants were randomly assigned to each experimental group. The analysis indicated that a human-like avatar is preferred by individuals over static avatar and perceived higher mindlessly. Interactive content didn’t improve individuals’ perceived mindless anthropomorphism. There was no significant increase in individuals’ mindful anthropomorphism in any condition. The study indicated perceived mindless anthropomorphism results into better comprehension, attitude and purchase intention towards really new products.

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Anthropomorphic paper_IJITM_v4 (002) - Accepted Manuscript
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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 19 March 2020
e-pub ahead of print date: 17 July 2020
Published date: 2020
Keywords: Perceived anthropomorphism, avatars, innovation, social cues

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 444549
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/444549
ISSN: 0219-8770
PURE UUID: d47e4beb-d61f-4740-ad9e-3371d2dd270f
ORCID for Melanie Ashleigh: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-0583-0922

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Date deposited: 23 Oct 2020 16:33
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 05:58

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Contributors

Author: Mona Seyed Esfahani
Author: Nina Reynolds

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