Authentically fake? How consumers respond to the influence of virtual influencers
Artificially created characters–virtual influencers–amass millions of followers on social media and affect digital natives’ engagement and decisionmaking in remarkable ways. Guided by the Uses and Gratification (U&G) approach and the Uncanny Valley Theory, this study seeks to understand this phe...
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sg-ntu-dr.10356-1701182023-08-29T00:59:17Z Authentically fake? How consumers respond to the influence of virtual influencers Lou, Chen Kiew, Josie Siu Ting Chen, Tao Lee, Michelle Tze Yen Ong, Celine Jia En Phua, ZhaoXi Nanyang Business School Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information Social sciences::Communication Virtual Influencers Consumers Artificially created characters–virtual influencers–amass millions of followers on social media and affect digital natives’ engagement and decisionmaking in remarkable ways. Guided by the Uses and Gratification (U&G) approach and the Uncanny Valley Theory, this study seeks to understand this phenomenon. By looking into followers’ engagement with virtual influencers, this study identifies and conceptualizes six primary motivations–namely, novelty, information, entertainment, surveillance, esthetics, and integration and social interaction. Furthermore, we found that most followers perceive virtual influencers as uncanny and authentically fake. However, followers also express acceptance of their staged fabrication where curated flaws and self-justification have been found to mitigate the effect of the uncanny valley. Virtual influencers are considered effective in building brand image and boosting brand awareness, but lack the persuasive ability to incite purchase intention due to a lack of authenticity, a low similarity to followers, and their weak parasocial relations with followers. These findings advance the extant literature on U&G, influencer advertising, and virtual influencers in the era of artificial intelligence; provide insights into the mitigating factors of the uncanny valley; and yield theoretical and practical implications for the efficacy of virtual influencers in advertising campaigns. Ministry of Education (MOE) This study was supported by the corresponding author’s RG57/19 (NS) Tier 1 grant from Singapore’s Ministry of Education. 2023-08-29T00:59:17Z 2023-08-29T00:59:17Z 2023 Journal Article Lou, C., Kiew, J. S. T., Chen, T., Lee, M. T. Y., Ong, C. J. E. & Phua, Z. (2023). Authentically fake? How consumers respond to the influence of virtual influencers. Journal of Advertising, 52(4), 540-557. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2022.2149641 0091-3367 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/170118 10.1080/00913367.2022.2149641 2-s2.0-85145096002 4 52 540 557 en RG57/19 Journal of Advertising © 2022 American Academy of Advertising. All rights reserved. |
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Social sciences::Communication Virtual Influencers Consumers Lou, Chen Kiew, Josie Siu Ting Chen, Tao Lee, Michelle Tze Yen Ong, Celine Jia En Phua, ZhaoXi Authentically fake? How consumers respond to the influence of virtual influencers |
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Artificially created characters–virtual influencers–amass millions of followers on social media and affect digital natives’ engagement and decisionmaking in remarkable ways. Guided by the Uses and Gratification (U&G) approach and the Uncanny Valley Theory, this study seeks to understand this phenomenon. By looking into followers’ engagement with virtual influencers, this study identifies and conceptualizes six primary motivations–namely, novelty, information, entertainment, surveillance, esthetics, and integration and social interaction. Furthermore, we found that most followers perceive virtual influencers as uncanny and authentically fake. However, followers also express acceptance of their staged fabrication where curated flaws and self-justification have been found to mitigate the effect of the uncanny valley. Virtual influencers are considered effective in building brand image and boosting brand awareness, but lack the persuasive ability to incite purchase intention due to a lack of authenticity, a low similarity to followers, and their weak parasocial relations with followers. These findings advance the extant literature on U&G, influencer advertising, and virtual influencers in the era of artificial intelligence; provide insights into the mitigating factors of the uncanny valley; and yield theoretical and practical implications for the efficacy of virtual influencers in advertising campaigns. |
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Nanyang Business School |
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Nanyang Business School Lou, Chen Kiew, Josie Siu Ting Chen, Tao Lee, Michelle Tze Yen Ong, Celine Jia En Phua, ZhaoXi |
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Article |
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Lou, Chen Kiew, Josie Siu Ting Chen, Tao Lee, Michelle Tze Yen Ong, Celine Jia En Phua, ZhaoXi |
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Lou, Chen |
title |
Authentically fake? How consumers respond to the influence of virtual influencers |
title_short |
Authentically fake? How consumers respond to the influence of virtual influencers |
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Authentically fake? How consumers respond to the influence of virtual influencers |
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Authentically fake? How consumers respond to the influence of virtual influencers |
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Authentically fake? How consumers respond to the influence of virtual influencers |
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authentically fake? how consumers respond to the influence of virtual influencers |
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2023 |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10356/170118 |
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