The effect of mortality salience on preference for anthropomorphic products

Firms often benefit from anthropomorphism for purposes such as persuading consumers, ensuring that their products and brands are perceived as intended, or enabling consumers to connect with their products and brands. Research has shown that anthropomorphic products and brands are liked more and perceived as more reliable, and advertisements with anthropomorphic elements grab more attention, are more memorable, and are perceived as more persuasive. More importantly, recent research has revealed that anthropomorphic products can compensate for consumers' negative experiences, such as loneliness, exclusion, and lack of control. The findings that anthropomorphic products can meet the needs for belongingness and control suggest that these products may also provide protection against mortality salience, which has been found to be closely related to both belongingness and control motivations in numerous studies. In three experimental studies, the current research aimed to examine the effect of mortality salience on the preference for anthropomorphic products and to determine the factors that may play a moderating role in this effect. Although the first study provided evidence for the positive effect of mortality salience on preference for anthropomorphic products, the two high-powered subsequent studies failed to provide further evidence for the effect of mortality salience on preference for anthropomorphic products, suggesting that the evidence from the first study was not reliable. Furthermore, no evidence was found regarding the moderating effects of the level of belongingness, attachment styles, or self-esteem, which were predicted to play a moderating role in the effect of mortality salience on preference for anthropomorphic products. Finally, it was found that product anthropomorphism has a positive effect on attitudes toward the product only when the product is compared with a non-anthropomorphic counterpart.