Consumer Reactions to Virtual Influencer Transgressions: How Anime-Looking and AI-Driven Influencers Are Less Vulnerable

Virtual influencers in diverse appearances emerged and gained popularity on virtual platforms. However, how the appearances of virtual influencers affect consumers’ attitudes and reactions remained largely unexplored. Through three experimental studies, this paper examines the psychological mechanism and boundary conditions for consumer reactions to virtual influencer transgressions. The results show that consumers are less forgiving and more negative in their reactions to transgressions conducted by human-like virtual influencers compared to anime-like ones, regardless of the type of transgression or the gender of the virtual influencer (Studies 1 and 2). Additionally, the driving mechanism of the virtual influencers has a moderating effect. When consumers are informed that the virtual influencer transgression is driven by a real person rather than AI, the impact of appearance on the reactions to transgressions is aggravated (Study 3). The result shows that appearance and driving mechanism both influence consumer perceptions of the virtual influencers’ agency, thereby determining the degree of reaction to transgressions.