The Interplay Between Human Likeness and Agency on Virtual Influencer Credibility.

This study investigated how human likeness (human-like vs. avatar-like) and agency (avatar vs. agent) interact to determine source credibility and the intention to interact with virtual influencers. The results revealed that human likeness significantly influenced three types of source credibility (attractiveness, trustworthiness, and expertise) and interaction intention. However, the agency of virtual influencers did not have a significant impact. Notably, the automated virtual influencer (i.e., the agent condition) was perceived to be more attractive and trustworthy and elicited higher interaction intention than the influencer operated by a human (i.e., the avatar condition). However, this relationship was observed only in the avatar-like condition. Thus, agency moderated the indirect relationship between human likeness and interaction through attractiveness and trustworthiness. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications of the findings and ideas for future research are discussed.

Artificial Intelligence Is Safer for My Privacy: Interplay Between Types of Personal Information and Agents on Perceived Privacy Risk and Concerns.

The development of novel technologies has increasingly complicated the issue of users' privacy. This study aimed to investigate the impact that the types of information as well as agents have on perceptions of privacy risks and concerns. The results showed that participants perceived privacy risk and were most concerned when they were asked to provide digital life information, followed by being asked for digital footprint information, and even more so when they were asked to provide this information to a human agent instead of an artificial intelligence agent. However, there were no differences in the perception of privacy risks and concerns with respect to self-expression and demographic information. The implications of these findings are also discussed.

Licensing Effect of Pro-Environmental Behavior in Metaverse.

The Metaverse is an important virtual venue in people's daily lives. This study examined whether pro-environmental behaviors in the Metaverse with a self-customized avatar lead to licensing effects, thereby reducing pro-environmental intention in reality. In addition, the study examined the mediating effect of self-presence on the relationship between avatar customization and pro-environmental behavior. A laboratory experiment was conducted using ZEPETO, a Metaverse platform. A total of 60 participants were randomly assigned to the self-customized avatar condition or the assigned avatar condition, and they engaged in pro-environmental behaviors on the Metaverse platform. Participants with self-customized avatars had less intention to engage in pro-environmental behavior in reality after engaging in pro-environmental behavior in the Metaverse than those with assigned avatars. Furthermore, self-presence partially mediated the relationship between avatar customization and pro-environmental intention.

The Psychological Consequences of Envying Influencers on Instagram.

This study examines how being envious toward social media influencers (SMIs) relates to users' affective well-being. An online survey was conducted in which 305 U.S. participants viewed to 20 posts of an SMI and subsequently measured their affective well-being, envy, and inspiration toward the SMI, and self-esteem levels. The results revealed a direct negative relationship between envy and affective well-being, but a positive indirect effect through inspiration. Furthermore, individuals' self-esteem moderates the relationship such that the positive relationship between envy and affective well-being through inspiration is stronger among those with high levels of self-esteem. Moreover, inspiration varies between different influencer categories, that is, participants who viewed fitness influencers reported the greatest amount of inspiration, followed by fashion, beauty, and entertainment influencers.

My Privacy and Control Matter: Understanding Motivations for Using Untact Services.

This study's aim was to uncover psychological and social motives for using untact services and to explore the relationships between identified motivations and attitudinal and continuous behavioral intention variables. We conducted a survey with 328 untact service users, and used exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis to find underlying motivations. The findings suggest that users of untact services have four primary motives. Individuals use untact services to protect their personal information (privacy), to increase their control over business transactions (control), to enjoy the process itself (fun), and to avoid uncomfortable interactions with employees (interaction avoidance). In addition, identified motivations and attitudes toward as well as continuing intention to use the services were all positively related. Among the motivations, control showed the strongest relationship with both attitude and continuance intention.

Effects of Gender and Relationship Type on the Response to Artificial Intelligence.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has had a huge impact on our lives. In this study, we suggest that when people interact with AI, they regard the AI as a social actor and apply interpersonal relationship norms. This study employed a 2 × 2 between-subjects design to identify the effects of an AI's relationship type and gender on a human's response to an AI speaker (relationship type: friend vs. servant; gender: male vs. female). Findings show that the relationship type has a significant effect on warmth and pleasure but not on competence. The gender of the AI showed no significant effects on competence, warmth, or pleasure when controlling for the participants' gender. In addition, the results indicate that anthropomorphism fully mediated the relationship between both warmth and pleasure and the type of relationship with AI. Our findings suggest that AI is regarded as a social actor, and the characteristics of AI should be considered as they influence the response to AI.

#DeleteFacebook: Antecedents of Facebook Fatigue.

Despite the trend of leaving Facebook (#DeleteFacebook campaign), investigation on both the social and psychological factors affecting Facebook fatigue is limited. This study aims to explore the social and psychological antecedents of Facebook fatigue and identify the effects of the antecedents on overall Facebook fatigue. A total of 327 Facebook users participated in an online survey. Respondents were recruited from a major online panel in Korea. The results from the principal component analysis suggest that there are six social and psychological antecedents: impression management, unwanted posts, reputation concern, personal relative deprivation, privacy concern, and relationship concern. In addition, the results show that personal relative deprivation, privacy concern, impression management, and relationship concern positively predicted overall Facebook fatigue. This research not only sheds light on the antecedents of social networking services (SNS) fatigue that influence overall Facebook fatigue but also suggests practical implications for the everexpanding SNS market.

Hide-and-Seek: Narcissism and "Selfie"-Related Behavior.

While prior research has examined the relationship between narcissism and self-promoting behaviors on social media (e.g., posting selfies), little is known about the extent to which individuals' level of narcissism relates to how involved they are in other people's feedback (e.g., comments and "likes") received on their selfies, or how observant and responsive they are to other people's selfie postings. The present study investigates how narcissism relates to such selfie-related behaviors, as well as overall evaluation of selfie-posting behavior and intention to post selfies in the future. By employing a total of 315 Korean subjects who take and post selfies on social networking sites, the present study indicates that individuals higher in narcissism are more likely to evaluate selfie-posting behavior favorably, be involved in the feedback provided by others, and be observant of other people's selfies. However, level of narcissism did not moderate the relationship between how much one observes others' selfies and the likelihood of providing a comment or "like" on other people's selfies.

How Culture Influences the "Social" in Social Media: Socializing and Advertising on Smartphones in India and the United States.

The importance of the mobile phone is evidenced by predictions that there will be 1.76 billion smartphone users worldwide at the start of 2015. A country that is spearheading this movement toward the digital era is India. To illustrate this, India is expected to surpass the United States in 2015 and record the second highest smartphone sales globally. Despite the rising penetration and adoption of smartphones, there is limited advertising research that sheds light on the Indian smartphone user. The current study aims to fill that void by cross-culturally comparing a national online panel of smartphone users from India (n=158) with users from the United States (n=114). Findings reveal that entertainment impacts Indians' attitudes toward smartphone advertising while informativeness is stronger for the American sample. Collectivism was found to be the driving force behind socializing activities on social networking sites for Indian consumers. Implications are discussed.

Pictures Speak Louder than Words: Motivations for Using Instagram.

While Instagram, the rising photo-sharing social networking service, has received increasing attention from scholars and practitioners, little is known about the social and psychological factors that lead consumers to become fanatics of this app. To provide a baseline understanding of Instagram users, the current study aims to uncover the structural dimensions of consumers' motives for using Instagram and to explore the relationships between identified motivations and key attitudinal and behavioral intention variables. A comprehensive survey was developed in which a total of 212 Instagram users evaluated their motivation, primary activities, use intention, and attitude regarding Instagram. The results suggest that Instagram users have five primary social and psychological motives: social interaction, archiving, self-expression, escapism, and peeking. The implications of this study's findings are discussed.

Understanding the role of cigarette promotion and youth smoking in a changing marketing environment.

In 2001, $11.21 billion was spent on domestic cigarette advertising and promotion, an increase of 16.9% over 2000. This article explains how cigarette industry efforts stimulate demand and encourage smoking within the context of recent changes, including the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) and resulting litigation, and variations in tobacco marketing policies. Communication concepts are combined with adolescent development concepts to explain how youth are impacted. Industry documents and current syndicated research data are used to reveal and explain key concepts.