Anthropomorphism
Introduction
Zaichen Li, Irene Scopelliti and Janina Steinmetz request empirical studies on anthropomorphism for a meta-analysis
Dear researchers,
Together with Dr. Irene Scopelliti and Dr. Janina Steinmetz of Cass Business School, City, University of London, I am currently working on a meta-analysis on the effects of anthropomorphism on consumer behaviour. As such, we want to make sure that we include and cite all the relevant studies. We are currently calling for empirical work on this topic, especially unpublished, but all stages are welcome (i.e., working papers, in press or published). Particularly, we are looking for empirical studies that meet the following criteria:
1. Anthropomorphic manipulation: the main manipulation could be (1) explicit design of humanlike features of the non-human entities (e.g., placed pair of eyes, designed body features of the products etc); and/or (2) implicit eliciting of thoughts through manipulations that may lead individuals to consider entities as humanlike representations/having minds (e.g., brands described as partners with intentions or smart products phased in with the capacity to think/communicate/plan etc). If you have a similar study and you are not sure of its eligibility, please do not hesitate to contact us regarding your studies.
2. Anthropomorphic manipulation check measures: we would appreciate if you can also attach your manipulation check measures on assessing the perceived anthropomorphism of the nonhuman entities if available.
3. Consumer behaviour outcomes: our main outcomes of interest are either attitudinal or behavioural outcomes related to consumer behaviour studies. If your study investigates the effect of anthropomorphic manipulations but the outcomes are outside the context of consumption, please do not hesitate to share it with us.
4. Data type: for each study, we would like to collect the means, standard deviations, standard errors, t-values and sample sizes for both treatment and control conditions. If you have conducted moderation analysis using additional factors explaining the occurrence of the effects of anthropomorphisation, please also provide the data described above for this analysis.
5. Format of data file: any standard format is welcomed, e.g., SPSS, STATA, CSV, output in DOC or PDF etc. Please be reassured your data will not be shared with any third party.
6. Language: the studies must be in English, or have been translated into English already, so that we can understand the design and keep our analysis consistent while extracting effect sizes.
If you have any experimental studies on this topic, we would be grateful if you could send your paper, manuscript, dissertation chapter, poster, or data set to Zaichen.Li@cass.city.ac.uk by 15th May 2019. We really appreciate your time and effort responding to this request.
Thank you very much in advance and we look forward to hearing back from you.
Sincerely,
Zaichen Li