Navigating consumer well-being in the digital era: how virtual influencer marketing can reduce fashion consumer anxiety and unsustainable purchases

While influencer marketing has transformed brand-consumer engagement, it raises concerns about psychological well-being, particularly in the fashion sector. The rise of virtual influencers (VIs), computer-generated personas that mimic human influencers (HIs), prompts questions about their impact on consumers’ mental health. This research examines how VI design features, including anthropomorphism and socialization intensity, affect emotional responses and impulsive buying. Across two experimental studies with young female consumers, findings show that low-anthropomorphic VIs elicit less appearance anxiety and body dissatisfaction than high-anthropomorphic VIs. These distress states trigger competing routes, including a direct compensatory route that increases impulsive buying and a reflective coping route through impression management that reduces such behavior. Furthermore, VIs with low socialization intensity produce less loneliness, reducing emotional attachment and subsequent impulsive buying. This research suggests that thoughtful VI design, specifically reducing human-likeness and moderating social cues, can protect consumer well-being and promote ethical, psychologically sustainable influencer marketing.