Is That Car Smiling at Me? Schema Congruity as a Basis for Evaluating Anthropomorphized Products

Abstract

The present research proposes schema congruity as a theoretical basis for examining the effectiveness and consequences of product anthropomorphism. Results of two studies suggest that the ability of consumers to anthropomorphize a product and their consequent evaluation of that product depend on the extent to which that product is endowed with characteristics congruent with the proposed human schema. Furthermore, consumers' perception of the product as human mediates the influence of feature type on product evaluation. Results of a third study, however, show that the affective tag attached to the specific human schema moderates the evaluation but not the successful anthropomorphizing of the product.

Non-Profits are Seen as Warm and For-Profits as Competent: Firm Stereotypes Matter

“…On the other hand, marketers put forth and consumers adopt personified products (Aaker 1997;Aggarwal and McGill 2007;Fournier 1998), suggesting that consumers are open to the notion that marketplace entities can possess human-like traits. Further, companies often are viewed as having a reputation, which is a global evaluation of an organization accumulated over a period of time (Fombrun and Shanley 1990).…”

Boris Artzybasheff and the art of anthropomorphic marketing in early American consumer culture

“…Without explicit references to the theory of anthropomorphism and highlighting the means whereby advertisers can manipulate consumers, McQuarrie & Phillips (2005) centre their attention on indirect metaphorical claims which embody and communicate humanike traits and have been successfully used in magazine advertisements. Aggarwal and McGill (2007) offer perhaps one of the most complete and empirically verified studies on the tendency to anthropomorphize objects examining how marketers encourage consumers to humanize a product by using schemas which resemble human-like features and form. They conclude that consumer preference of a product oscillates between the qualities of the item and anthropomorphic-related schemas.…”

The Right Angle: Visual Portrayal of Products Affects Observers’ Impressions of Owners

“…Multiple lines of research suggest that the automobile is one such product. Research into anthropomorphic aspects of product perception demonstrates that consumers readily perceive faces in the fronts of automobiles, including specific facial structures such as "eyes" (e.g., headlights: Aggarwal & McGill, 2007;Ichikawa, Kanazawa, & Yamaguchi, 2011;Landwehr, McGill, & Herrmann, 2011;Windhager et al, 2008).…”