Impact of Visual and Verbal Anthropomorphism on User Satisfaction in Academic Library Services

This study aims to identify the factors influencing undergraduate and postgraduate students’ satisfaction with academic library information services in China, and to examine how anthropomorphic features in AI-enabled virtual service agents (VSAs), drawing on anthropomorphism theory and social information processing theory, enhance their user experience. Based on social information processing and anthropomorphism theories, this study adopts a mixed-methods approach combining virtual scenario experiments and questionnaire surveys. Virtual scenario experiments were conducted to manipulate visual and verbal anthropomorphism in AI-enabled library service agents, and a survey was administered to undergraduate and postgraduate students at Wuhan University using a snowball sampling method, yielding 307 valid responses. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) were employed to examine how visual and verbal anthropomorphism influence users’ psychological distance and, consequently, their satisfaction with digital library services. The results show that perceived familiarity, perceived relevance, and perceived interactivity positively affect psychological distance. Psychological distance positively affects enjoyment, trust, and perceived usefulness. Trust positively affects both affective and cognitive satisfaction; enjoyment positively affects affective satisfaction and perceived usefulness positively affects cognitive satisfaction. Furthermore, prior knowledge has a moderating influence. The fsQCA results highlight that perceived relevance, perceived interactivity, and perceived usefulness are the three fundamental antecedents of user satisfaction. This research demonstrates that anthropomorphic features in academic library digital interfaces can enhance user satisfaction by reducing psychological distance. It also highlights the distinct psychological and behavioral responses of undergraduate versus postgraduate students, providing actionable insights for designing more engaging and effective library services.