Does Humanizing a Product Make Consumers Value It More? Psychological Ownership as the Mechanism in an Emerging Market #

Anthropomorphism is a pervasive branding strategy, yet the behavioral mechanism through which humanized design shapes product valuation remains insufficiently understood. Drawing on psychological ownership theory, this research examines whether anthropomorphic presentation raises product valuation by strengthening consumers’ psychological ownership. Two between-subjects experiments were conducted with consumers in Türkiye, using a complex product (an automobile; n = 583) and a simple product (a thermos; n = 567); both manipulated anthropomorphism and measured psychological ownership and product valuation. Bias-corrected bootstrap analyses supported a significant indirect effect through psychological ownership in both studies, whereas the total effect was significant only for the automobile. The findings provide evidence consistent with psychological ownership as the channel linking humanized design to consumer valuation in an emerging market, with implications for international branding and pricing.