How social exclusion and high self-esteem negatively affect consumer attitudes toward anthropomorphized products

Empirical studies have demonstrated that the anthropomorphism of products has positive effects on consumers’ attitudes and behaviors toward those products. However, our findings in two experiments suggest that product anthropomorphism might produce negative effects under certain conditions. People who were socially excluded and who had high self-esteem evaluated anthropomorphized products more negatively than did those with low self-esteem, and the distinctiveness motivation mediated the effect of this interaction of social exclusion and self-esteem on attitudes toward anthropomorphized products. Our findings extend extant knowledge of product anthropomorphism and provide marketing managers with practical suggestions for applying marketing strategies that utilize anthropomorphized products.