To Initiate or Not: How Virtual Social Touch of Virtual Humans Affects User Perceptions in Marketing Interactions

Virtual humans have been widely adopted to serve as alternatives to human staff for user services. Although there is extensive research on the effect of virtual human realism on user responses, it remains unknown how virtual humans conveying virtual social touch affects user perceptions. Our study shows that the presence (vs. absence) of virtual social touch significantly triggers stronger perceived creepiness and intrusiveness toward virtual humans, thereby having a negative effect on the intention to interact. This effect is moderated by the individual social anxiety as well as the virtual human appearance and language style. For users with lower social anxiety, virtual humans with anime-like appearance and using informal language style, this negative perception caused by virtual social touch can be alleviated. These findings enrich the application of mind perception theory and provide theoretical and practical insights for the design and use of virtual humans in marketing interactions.

虚拟人类（Virtual Humans）已被广泛应用于用户服务场景，作为人工坐席的替代方案。尽管学界已围绕虚拟人类的真实感对用户反应的影响开展了大量研究，但目前仍未明确，带有虚拟社交触碰（Virtual Social Touch）行为的虚拟人类会如何影响用户的感知体验。本研究发现，虚拟社交触碰的存在与否会产生显著差异：当虚拟人类施加虚拟社交触碰时，会显著引发用户对其更强的诡异感知与侵扰感，进而对用户的互动意愿产生负面影响。该效应会受到个体社交焦虑水平、虚拟人类外观与语言风格的调节作用。对于社交焦虑水平较低的用户而言，采用动漫风格外观且使用非正式语言风格的虚拟人类，可有效缓解由虚拟社交触碰引发的负面感知。本研究结论丰富了心智知觉理论（Mind Perception Theory）的应用场景，并为营销互动场景中虚拟人类的设计与落地应用提供了理论与实践双重层面的参考依据。