基于人性本真性的拟人化广告的负面情绪与态度——愧疚感的中介作用

通常来说,商业活动中的拟人化设计可以起到增加亲切感、提升产品评价和增加购买意愿作用。然而,产品广告中不恰当的拟人化设计所引发的负面情绪和态度却很少受到学术界和实践界的关注。本文以食物广告的拟人化设计为研究背景,发现广告中对食用对象进行不恰当的拟人化设计会让人产生愧疚感,进而对广告态度产生负面态度。更进一步,本文表明这种负面效应只发生在感知该拟人化对象的人性本真性高的情况。当消费者不相信拟人化对象真的会拥有人性(本真性低)时,拟人化广告并不会给人们带来明显的负面情绪和态度。

Negative emotion effects of anthropomorphic advertising: Mediating role of guilt

Anthropomorphic design is a common method in brand building,marketing communication or product design,such as being used for the brand mascot.Generally speaking,anthropomorphic design in marketing can increase perceived intimacy,purchase intention or product evaluation,among others.However,there was insufficient attention in research on the possible negative effects of anthropomorphism.Focusing on food advertisements,this study tried to identify the mechanism of inappropriate anthropomorphic design in advertisement,which may lead to consumers' negative emotional response and attitude toward advertisement.We conducted three experiments to investigate this speculation.The data of Study 1 was collected from 80 undergraduates.Participants in Group 1 saw the anthropomorphic advertisement while Group 2 saw a non-anthropomorphic advertisement,following which both groups responded to questionnaire items on the manipulation check of anthropomorphism,attitude toward advertisement and guilt.Study 2 and 3 further investigated the boundary effect of the authenticity of humanity.Study 2 manipulated authenticity by anthropomorphizing different objects in the advertisement.Participants in Study 3 were presented with different sets of science material on plant,which influenced their perception of humanity authenticity.The data of Study 2 and 3 were collected from 135 and 105 undergraduates.Our experiments showed that inappropriate anthropomorphic design in food advertisement generated illusions of "eating people",and made consumers feel guilty.Guilt is a kind of self-conscious emotion,which involves negative feelings about a specific behavior or action taken by the self.So,anthropomorphic design in food makes "eating" a hurtful behavior,which subsequently makes consumers feel guilty.The results showed that the negative effects of anthropomorphic design on attitude towards advertisement were mediated by the guilty feeling.Furthermore,this effect only happened when perceived humanity authenticity of food anthropomorphic design was high.When consumers did not believe the anthropomorphized object had the ability to think (authenticity of food anthropomorphic design is low),then it would not lower the positive attitude towards the advertisement.As a result,the negative effect would only happen when pigs but not when meat balls were anthropomorphized (Study 2),and when participants read materials indicating that even mushroom could feel the pain (Study 3).This study filled the gap of the negative influence of anthropomorphic design by exploring the mechanism of negative emotion (guilt) and authenticity.Furthermore,past research usually focused on companies or marketing materials,however,this study focused on the view of consumers' wellbeing.The studies provide important implications for food advertising.