Social Support from Virtual vs. Human Influencers: Effects on Support Efficacy, Interactivity, and Social Attractiveness

초록

With the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technologies, interactions with virtual influencers are attracting attention. Considering the exchange of social support between influencers and their followers, this study examines individuals' responses to social support provided by human versus virtual influencers. Specifically, we investigate how cognitive and emotional support affects evaluations of support efficacy, interactivity, social attractiveness, and attitudes, as well as the interplay of these effects according to influencer type. We conduct an online experimental study in the context of Instagram stories and find significant interaction effects between influencer and support types. The results show that for human influencers, support types do not lead to differences in evaluations. For virtual influencers, however, cognitive support leads to higher evaluations of support efficacy, interactivity, social attractiveness, and attitudes. Moderated mediation analyses confirm that the serial mediating effects of interactivity and social attractiveness are significant in the virtual influencer condition.

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