The 3 C's of anthropomorphism: Connection, comprehension, and competition

By Linyun W. Yang, P. Aggarwal, Ann L. McGill. Consumer Psychology Review, 2019

102 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Anthropomorphism, or imbuing nonhuman entities with human traits, is prevalent in the marketplace. Products bear subtle resem‐ blances to humans, such as the “facial” features of a car's headlights and grille, and the curves of a Coke bottle. Products are portrayed as engaging in human activities and mannerisms, like the forlorn slouch of a discarded IKEA desk lamp sitting in the rain, whereas anthropomorphized spokes‐characters like the M&M candies and Mr. Clean have personal aspirations and elaborate back stories (Characters, 2019; The Origin of Mr. Clean, 2019). Even without the nudging of marketers, consumers spontaneously anthropomorphize the products they frequently engage with, from naming their cars to imploring their crashing computers to stop “messing” with them. The self‐propelled motion of smart home gadgets like the Roomba vacuum cleaner and voice command recognition of AI assistants like Amazon's Alexa further encourage anthropomorphism by giving these devices the semblance of goal‐oriented behavior and person‐ ality. Anthropomorphized brands and products are all around us. The common intuition is that making brands and products appear more human renders them more endearing and allows consumers to connect with them at a deeper level, resulting in strong, long‐last‐ ing, positive relationships. In addition to supporting this intuition, the last decade of consumer research shows that anthropomorphism has much broader implications. When imbued with human characteris‐ tics, anthropomorphized brands and products become active par‐ ticipants in the consumption experience and are viewed and treated fundamentally differently than those viewed simply as objects. Anthropomorphized entities take on the rich and complex persona of a human being, with all the intentions and goals, feelings and emo‐ tions, and hopes and desires that go with that person. When these nonhuman entities take on a human form, considerations usually Received: 29 June 2019 | Revised: 19 August 2019 | Accepted: 22 August 2019 DOI: 10.1002/arcp.1054

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Marketing

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/8ebf91d8b99f017f8492a8792f69ad2a5b0aa304