Too real for comfort? The impact of social cues and human-like behaviour dynamics in virtual influencer marketing on consumers’ perceptions and attitudes

With their human-like appearances and personas, virtual influencers are reshaping the digital and social media landscape, further blurring the lines between reality and virtuality. However, there is a gap in understanding the varied effects of these realistic-looking virtual influencers on contemporary consumers. This study, involving 244 social media users, investigated how human-like behaviours and social cues of realistically human-looking virtual influencers impact consumers’ perceptions (anthropomorphism, warmth, competence and realism) and attitudes toward them. Drawing on anthropomorphism and human-computer interaction theories, such as the sociality motivation, effectance motivation, the elicited agent knowledge model and the computers are social actors paradigm, the research expands understanding about virtual influencers. Findings indicate that while certain humanlike behaviours enhance anthropomorphic perceptions, pronounced human-like behaviours and social cues, such as consuming food next to a real human, cause discomfort. This study contributes empirical evidence of cognitive discomfort resulting from the hyper-realistic appearance and behaviour of virtual influencers. This insight sheds light on critical consideration for marketers and advertisers, as overly human-like portrayals of virtual influencers in food-related content may inadvertently evoke unease rather than engagement. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at http://hstalks/business.