TY - JOUR
T1 - AI-powered recommendations
T2 - the roles of perceived similarity and psychological distance on persuasion
AU - Ahn, Jungyong
AU - Kim, Jungwon
AU - Sung, Yongjun
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Ministry of education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2019S1A3A2099973).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Advertising Association.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Artificial intelligence (AI) plays various roles in our daily lives, such as personal assistant, salesperson, and virtual counselors; thus, it stands out in various fields as a recommendation agent. This study explored the effects of perceived similarity and psychological distance on the persuasion of AI recommendation agents through two experiments. Results of Experiment 1 elucidated that individuals feel more psychologically distant when they interact with AI recommendation agents than with human agents as a result of a different level of perceived similarity. Furthermore, psychological distance plays a mediating role in determining the effectiveness of desirability- vs. feasibility-focused messages in health-related issues. In Experiment 2, we manipulated the AI speaker's level of perceived similarity via anthropomorphism and found that the AI's recommendation with secondary (vs. primary) features is more effective when AI is humanized, and the reverse was found in non-humanized AI conditions. Both theoretical and managerial implications are provided.
AB - Artificial intelligence (AI) plays various roles in our daily lives, such as personal assistant, salesperson, and virtual counselors; thus, it stands out in various fields as a recommendation agent. This study explored the effects of perceived similarity and psychological distance on the persuasion of AI recommendation agents through two experiments. Results of Experiment 1 elucidated that individuals feel more psychologically distant when they interact with AI recommendation agents than with human agents as a result of a different level of perceived similarity. Furthermore, psychological distance plays a mediating role in determining the effectiveness of desirability- vs. feasibility-focused messages in health-related issues. In Experiment 2, we manipulated the AI speaker's level of perceived similarity via anthropomorphism and found that the AI's recommendation with secondary (vs. primary) features is more effective when AI is humanized, and the reverse was found in non-humanized AI conditions. Both theoretical and managerial implications are provided.
KW - Artificial intelligence (AI)
KW - anthropomorphism
KW - construal level theory (CLT)
KW - psychological distance
KW - recommendation agent
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85118253492&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/02650487.2021.1982529
DO - 10.1080/02650487.2021.1982529
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85118253492
VL - 40
SP - 1366
EP - 1384
JO - International Journal of Advertising
JF - International Journal of Advertising
SN - 0265-0487
IS - 8
ER -