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Few studies on the effects of smartphone assistants' anthropomorphism on consumer behavior have been conducted. This study explored the effects of anthropomorphism on consumers' psychological ownership of smartphone assistants and perceptions of their competence. Moreover, it investigated arousal during smartphone assistant use and examined how relationship norms governing the consumer–smartphone assistant relationship moderate the effects of anthropomorphism on psychological ownership. In study 1, which had a one‐factorial design (high vs. low anthropomorphism), a highly anthropomorphic smartphone assistant was perceived to be more competent. In study 2, which followed the same experimental procedure under a 2 × 2 full factorial design, the anthropomorphism–relationship norms interaction moderated psychological ownership. Psychological ownership fully mediated the effect of anthropomorphism on perceived competence. Study 3 employed a 2 (anthropomorphism: high vs. low) × 2 (arousal: high vs. low) × 2 (relationship norms: exchange vs. communal) full factorial design. In the high arousal condition, anthropomorphism and relationship norms exerted no significant effect on psychological ownership. A conditional indirect effect from anthropomorphism to perceived competence through psychological ownership was only significant under low arousal and adherence to communal relationship norms. In summary, the degree of anthropomorphism influenced perceived competence through psychological ownership. Therefore, companies should incorporate anthropomorphic cues into smartphone assistant design, thereby promoting their personification by consumers and benefiting perceptions of their competence.

We investigated the effects of service robots' anthropomorphism on consumers' attribution and forgiveness of service failure. By manipulating the levels of anthropomorphism in service robots in three experiments, we evaluated the relationship norms and involvement levels of consumers. Three contributions of our study are as follows. First, most human–robot interaction studies have focused on consumers' dissatisfaction with service robots' service failures. Unfortunately, few studies have investigated the influence of service robots' anthropomorphism levels on consumers' internal attribution and forgiveness of service failure. In the present study, we found a positive correlation between the former and the latter. The findings of this study indicate marketing managers should design their service robots to be less anthropomorphic to reduce the likelihood of consumers making an internal attribution when a service failure occurs and increase their forgiveness of service failure. In addition, to reduce the likelihood of consumers' internal attribution upon service failure, managers may ensure that their service robots explain to the consumers the cause of service failure (e.g., inability to understand consumers' requirements and robots' design‐related limitations). Second, consumers' relationship norms moderate the effect of anthropomorphism level on internal attribution. Third, robot anthropomorphism is reportedly effective only when anthropomorphization occurs subconsciously.