Authentically Fake? How Consumers Respond to the Influence of Virtual Influencers
2023 · Published in Journal of Advertising 52(4): 540–557 · DOI 10.1080/00913367.2022.2149641
In one sentence
Followers see virtual influencers as uncanny but “authentically fake”: effective for brand awareness, but weak at persuading people to buy.
Summary
Guided by the uses-and-gratifications approach and uncanny valley theory, the paper studies why people follow virtual influencers (computer-generated social media characters) and how they respond to them. It identifies six motivations for following: novelty, information, entertainment, surveillance, aesthetics, and integration and social interaction. Most followers perceive virtual influencers as uncanny and “authentically fake”, but accept their staged fabrication, and curated flaws and self-justification soften the uncanny-valley effect. Virtual influencers are seen as effective for building brand image and awareness but lack the persuasive power to drive purchase intention, because of low authenticity, low similarity to followers and weak parasocial relationships.
Abstract as published
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.
Citation
Chen Lou, Siu Ting Josie Kiew, Tao Chen, Tze Yen Michelle Lee, Jia En Celine Ong, ZhaoXi Phua (2023). Authentically Fake? How Consumers Respond to the Influence of Virtual Influencers. Journal of Advertising, 52(4), 540–557. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2022.2149641
BibTeX
@article{lou2023authentically,
title = {{Authentically Fake? How Consumers Respond to the Influence of Virtual Influencers}},
author = {Chen Lou and Siu Ting Josie Kiew and Tao Chen and Tze Yen Michelle Lee and Jia En Celine Ong and ZhaoXi Phua},
journal = {Journal of Advertising},
year = {2023},
volume = {52},
number = {4},
pages = {540--557},
doi = {10.1080/00913367.2022.2149641}
}