Research On The Impact Of Ignored Social Exclusion On Consumers’ Preferences For Anthropomorphic Products

With the intensified competition in the market environment,more and more companies choose to use anthropomorphic products to attract consumers’ attention,such as warm and friendly partner products or considerate servant products.But the problem that comes with it is that not every anthropomorphic product will necessarily be loved by all kinds of consumers.Companies urgently need to understand what factors affect consumers’ choice of different anthropomorphic products.The two typical anthropomorphic products mentioned above:partners and servants,because of their distinctive characteristics,can make up for the different psychological needs of consumers.How to grasp the psychology of consumers,understand the factors and mechanisms that affect consumer choice,for the adoption of anthropomorphic marketing enterprises will be particularly important.Although there are many existing researches on anthropomorphic products,but most of them focus on the differences between anthropomorphic and non-anthropomorphic influences on consumer attitudes.A handful of studies,from the perspective of the consumer and anthropomorphic product relations only discussed different types of brand anthropomorphized influence on consumer attitudes,or discussed the influence of certain characteristics of consumers on the preferences of different types of anthropomorphic products,few studies have explored the effect of contextual factors on the preferences of different types of anthropomorphic products,and the mechanism is still unclear.Based on the self-focused attention theory,social class theory from the social perspective and implicit theory,this study explores the influence of consumers’ preference for different anthropomorphic products after experiencing ignored social exclusion,as well as the mediating mechanism and boundary conditions of this influence relationship.In this study,we found that,consumers who experienced ignored social exclusion will prefer servant anthropomorphic products(vs.partner),and self-focused plays a mediating role in the above-mentioned influence relationship.Specifically,experiencing ignored social exclusion will trigger consumers’ selffocused.making them tend to prefer servant anthropomorphic products than partner anthropomorphic products(Experiment 1);subjective social status moderates ignored social exclusion on consumer’s preference for different anthropomorphic products.Specifically,when the individual’s subjective social status is low,consumers who experience ignored social exclusion will prefer servant anthropomorphic products compared to partner anthropomorphic products.When the individual’s subjective social status is high,the positive influence of ignored social exclusion on the preference of servant anthropomorphic products will disappear(Experiment 2);the individual’s implicit personality moderates ignored social exclusion on consumer preference for different anthropomorphic products.Specifically,for the entity theorist,consumers who experience ignored social exclusion will prefer servant anthropomorphic products compared to partner anthropomorphic products;for the incremental theorist,the positive influence of ignored social exclusion on the preference of servant anthropomorphic products will disappear(Experiment 3).The conclusion of this study enriches the influence of social situation factors on consumers’ preferences for different anthropomorphic products.It will provide theoretical guidance for companies to effectively implement anthropomorphic marketing.