Examining the effect of mortality salience on preference for anthropomorphic products.

Research has shown that anthropomorphic products can compensate for the lack of belongingness and control. These findings suggest that anthropomorphic products may also protect against mortality salience, which has been shown in numerous research studies to be closely related to both belongingness and control motives. In two high-powered experiments, the present research aimed to investigate the effect of mortality salience on preference for anthropomorphic products and test the moderating role of three relevant factors, namely, belongingness, self-esteem, and attachment style. In the first study, we conducted a 2 (mortality salience: yes vs. no) x 2 (anthropomorphism: yes vs. no) between-subjects factorial design experiment. In the second study, we conducted a 2 (mortality salience: yes, no) x 2 (anthropomorphism: yes, no) mixed design experiment, in which we manipulated mortality salience between subjects and anthropomorphism within subjects. We found no evidence for the effect of mortality salience on preference for anthropomorphic products, nor for the moderating roles of belongingness, attachment style, or self-esteem. However, we found that anthropomorphism had a large, positive main effect on attitudes toward the product only when a non-anthropomorphic comparison was available. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

An examination of dispositional social needs, agent knowledge, and two dimensions of product anthropomorphism: A serial mediation model.

Thriving attention has been paid to the process and concept of anthropomorphism in marketing literature, as the concept is considered to be a precursor of positive marketing outcomes. However, prior studies have not clarified the position or role of inductive reasoning and anthropomorphism or explained the relationship between anthropomorphism and consumers' individual dispositions. This paper aims to delve into the relationship between consumer psychological and dispositional motivational traits for a given product advertisement that has been personified and imbued with human body features. Building on the literature, a conceptual model has been proposed in which the psychological process-agent knowledge and dispositional motivation to meet social needs have been taken as independent variables positively related to one another and also related individually to the two distinct dimensions of anthropomorphism (i) physical anthropomorphism and (ii) anthropomorphic thinking. Furthermore, it was empirically tested if these two dimensions and these independent variables are linked in a sequential manner. The results show that the need for belonging is positively associated with agent knowledge acquisition, physical anthropomorphism, and anthropomorphic thinking for a given stimulus. Similarly, agent knowledge induced by a humanized stimulus was also positively associated with the two dimensions of anthropomorphism. Furthermore, the two dimensions had a positive relationship with one another. Finally, the need for belonging is also positively associated with agent knowledge and two dimensions of anthropomorphism in a sequential manner. Findings indicate that marketers need to take into account dispositional and psychological factors which might ultimately affect their anthropomorphic inferences in order to induce anthropomorphic thinking because of which positive marketing outcomes take place.