Artificial intelligence-generated virtual influencer: Examining the effects of emotional display on user engagement

J. Yu; A. Dickinger; K.K.F. So; R. Egger

doi:10.1016/j.jretconser.2023.103560

Artificial intelligence-generated virtual influencer: Examining the effects of emotional display on user engagement

J. Yu
, A. Dickinger
, K.K.F. So
, R. Egger

Business and Tourism

Department of Tourism and Service Management, Modul University Vienna
Faculty of International Tourism and Management, City University of Macau
School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Spears School of Business, Oklahoma State University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Focusing on the application of artificial intelligence, this study investigates the impact of emotional display on user engagement with computer-generated imagery influencers through the lens of the computers are social actors (CASA) framework. It breaks down emotions into individual muscle movements (i.e., facial action units). By using facial recognition based on 1,028 pictures shared by Lil Miquela, the findings disclose the significance of happiness, sadness, disgust, and surprise in triggering user engagement when promoting diverse products with visually captivating content. The findings highlight the importance of balancing the intensity of muscle movement to streamline the interplay between technology, human behaviour, and digital communication.

Original language	English
Journal	J. Retail. Consum. Serv.
Volume	76
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2023.103560
Publication status	Published - 1 Jan 2024

Keywords

Computer-generated imagery
Facial action unit
Social media
artificial intelligence
human behavior
imagery
muscle
social media
technology adoption

Classification according to Österreichische Systematik der Wissenschaftszweige (ÖFOS 2012)

Not applicable

Applied Research Level (ARL)

Not applicable

Research focus/foci

Not applicable

Access to Document

10.1016/j.jretconser.2023.103560

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85170434478&doi=10.1016%2fj.jretconser.2023.103560&partnerID=40&md5=a22edef83a045020660ee0627c62c5b0

Cite this

@article{6a7226a8f2f94a2f964fdf03c9ab09e2,

title = "Artificial intelligence-generated virtual influencer: Examining the effects of emotional display on user engagement",

abstract = "Focusing on the application of artificial intelligence, this study investigates the impact of emotional display on user engagement with computer-generated imagery influencers through the lens of the computers are social actors (CASA) framework. It breaks down emotions into individual muscle movements (i.e., facial action units). By using facial recognition based on 1,028 pictures shared by Lil Miquela, the findings disclose the significance of happiness, sadness, disgust, and surprise in triggering user engagement when promoting diverse products with visually captivating content. The findings highlight the importance of balancing the intensity of muscle movement to streamline the interplay between technology, human behaviour, and digital communication.",

keywords = "Computer-generated imagery, Facial action unit, Social media, artificial intelligence, human behavior, imagery, muscle, social media, technology adoption",

author = "J. Yu and A. Dickinger and K.K.F. So and R. Egger",

note = "Export Date: 14 December 2023 Correspondence Address: Yu, J.; School of Tourism and Service Management, Am Kahlenberg 1, Austria; email: [email protected] Funding text 1: None. References: Ahn, R.J., Cho, S.Y., Tsai, S.W., Demystifying computer-generated imagery (CGI) influencers: the effect of perceived anthropomorphism and social presence on brand outcomes (2022) J. Interact. Advert., pp. 1-9; Aramendia-Muneta, M.E., Olarte-Pascual, C., Ollo-L{\'o}pez, A., Key image attributes to elicit likes and comments on Instagram (2020) J. Promot. Manag., pp. 1-27; Araujo, T., Living up to the chatbot hype: the influence of anthropomorphic design cues and communicative agency framing on conversational agent and company perceptions (2018) Comput. Hum. Behav., 85, pp. 183-189; Arsenyan, J., Mirowska, A., Almost human? A comparative case study on the social media presence of virtual influencers (2021) Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud., 155; Baek, T.H., Bakpayev, M., Yoon, S., Kim, S., Smiling AI agents: how anthropomorphism and broad smiles increase charitable giving (2022) Int. J. Advert., 41 (5), pp. 850-867; Baklanov, N., The Top Virtual Instagram Influencers In 2021. HypeAuditor (2021), https://hypeauditor.com/blog/the-top-instagram-virtual-influencers-in-2021/; Baltrusaitis, T., Zadeh, A., Lim, Y.C., Morency, L.-P., OpenFace 2.0: facial behavior analysis toolkit (2018) 2018 13th IEEE International Conference on Automatic Face \& Gesture Recognition (FG 2018), pp. 59-66. , IEEE; Bass, B., Fink, N., Price, M., Sturre, L., Hentschel, E., Pak, R., How does anthropomorphism affect user's trust, compliance, and performance on a decision making automation task? (2011) Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 55, pp. 1952-1956. , Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA 1; Beattie, A., Edwards, A.P., Edwards, C., A bot and a smile: interpersonal impressions of chatbots and humans using emoji in computer-mediated communication (2020) Commun. Stud., 71 (3), pp. 409-427; Bharadwaj, N., Ballings, M., Naik, P.A., Moore, M., Arat, M.M., A new livestream retail analytics framework to assess the sales impact of emotional displays (2022) J. Market., 86 (1), pp. 27-47; Bharadwaj, N., Shipley, G.M., Salesperson communication effectiveness in a digital sales interaction (2020) Ind. Market. Manag., 90, pp. 106-112; Blondel, V.D., Guillaume, J.-L., Lambiotte, R., Lefebvre, E., Fast unfolding of communities in large networks (2008) J. Stat. Mech. Theor. Exp., 2008 (10); Campos, B., Shiota, M.N., Keltner, D., Gonzaga, G.C., Goetz, J.L., What is shared, what is different? Core relational themes and expressive displays of eight positive emotions (2013) Cognit. Emot., 27 (1), pp. 37-52; Chen, C.-P., Forming digital self and parasocial relationships on YouTube (2016) J. Consum. Cult., 16 (1), pp. 232-254; Chen, S.H., Chen, Y.H., A content-based image retrieval method based on the google cloud vision api and wordnet (2017) Intelligent Information and Database Systems: 9th Asian Conference, ACIIDS 2017, Kanazawa, Japan, April 3-5, 2017, Proceedings, Part I 9, pp. 651-662. , Springer International Publishing; Cheung, M.L., Leung, W.K., Aw, E.C.-X., Koay, K.Y., “I follow what you post!”: the role of social media influencers{\textquoteright} content characteristics in consumers' online brand-related activities (COBRAs) (2022) J. Retailing Consum. Serv., 66; Chuah, S.H.-W., Yu, J., The future of service: the power of emotion in human-robot interaction (2021) J. Retailing Consum. Serv., 61; Clark, E.A., Kessinger, J.N., Duncan, S.E., Bell, M.A., Lahne, J., Gallagher, D.L., O'Keefe, S.F., The facial action coding system for characterization of human affective response to consumer product-based stimuli: a systematic review (2020) Front. Psychol., 11, pp. 1-21; Da Silva Oliveira, A.B., Chimenti, P., {"}Humanized robots{"}: a proposition of categories to understand virtual influencers (2021) Australas. J. Inf. Sys., 25; Deng, F., Jiang, X., Effects of human versus virtual human influencers on the appearance anxiety of social media users (2023) J. Retailing Consum. Serv., 71; Djafarova, E., Rushworth, C., Exploring the credibility of online celebrities' Instagram profiles in influencing the purchase decisions of young female users (2017) Comput. Hum. Behav., 68, pp. 1-7; Drenten, J., Brooks, G., Celebrity 2.0: Lil Miquela and the rise of a virtual star system (2020) Fem. Media Stud., 20 (8), pp. 1319-1323; Egger, R., Text representations and word embeddings: vectorizing textual data (2022) Appl. Data Sci. Tourism: Interdiscipl. Approaches, Methodol. Appl., pp. 335-361; Ekman, P., An argument for basic emotions (1992) Cognit. Emot., 6 (3-4), pp. 169-200; Ekman, P., Friesen, W.V., Facial action coding system. [Database record] (1978) APA PsycTests; Fischer, A.H., Becker, D., Veenstra, L., Emotional mimicry in social context: the case of disgust and pride (2012) Front. Psychol., 3, p. 475; Fotheringham, D., Wiles, M.A., The effect of implementing chatbot customer service on stock returns: an event study analysis (2022) J. Acad. Market. Sci., , Advance online publication; Gambino, A., Fox, J., Ratan, R., Building a stronger CASA: extending the computers are social actors paradigm (2020) Human-Mach. Commun., 1, pp. 71-86; Gentina, E., Kratzer, J., An integrative model of the influence of self-esteem on adolescents{\textquoteright} consumer innovativeness: the mediating role of social network position and need for uniqueness (2020) Ind. Innovat., 27 (10), pp. 1110-1132; Goh, K.M., Ng, C.H., Lim, L.L., Sheikh, U.U., Micro-expression recognition: an updated review of current trends, challenges and solutions (2020) Vis. Comput., 36 (3), pp. 445-468; Goldenberg, A., Gross, J.J., Digital emotion contagion (2020) Trends Cognit. Sci., 24 (4), pp. 316-328; Grandey, A.A., Fisk, G.M., Mattila, A.S., Jansen, K.J., Sideman, L.A., Is “service with a smile” enough? Authenticity of positive displays during service encounters (2005) Organ. Behav. Hum. Decis. Process., 96 (1), pp. 38-55; Grundner, L., Neuhofer, B., The bright and dark sides of artificial intelligence: a futures perspective on tourist destination experiences (2021) J. Destin. Market. Manag., 19; Gunnery, S.D., Hall, J.A., Ruben, M.A., The deliberate duchenne smile: individual differences in expressive control (2013) J. Nonverbal Behav., 37 (1), pp. 29-41; Henderson, J.M., Human gaze control during real-world scene perception (2003) Trends Cognit. Sci., 7 (11), pp. 498-504; Herring, S.C., The coevolution of computer-mediated communication and computer-mediated discourse analysis (2019) Anal. Digit. Discourse, pp. 25-67; Huang, M.-H., Rust, R.T., Engaged to a robot? The role of AI in service (2021) J. Serv. Res., 24 (1), pp. 30-41; Hwang, K., Zhang, Q., Influence of parasocial relationship between digital celebrities and their followers on followers{\textquoteright} purchase and electronic word-of-mouth intentions, and persuasion knowledge (2018) Comput. Hum. Behav., 87, pp. 155-173; Jones, A.R., Lee, S.-E., Factors influencing engagement in fashion brands{\textquoteright} Instagram posts (2022) Fash. 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Tourism Res.; Zhang, S., Lin, X., Li, X., Ren, A., Service robots{\textquoteright} anthropomorphism: dimensions, factors and internal relationships (2022) Electron. Mark., , Advance online publication",

year = "2024",

month = jan,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1016/j.jretconser.2023.103560",

language = "English",

volume = "76",

journal = "J. Retail. Consum. Serv.",

issn = "0969-6989",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Artificial intelligence-generated virtual influencer: Examining the effects of emotional display on user engagement

AU - Yu, J.

AU - Dickinger, A.

AU - So, K.K.F.

AU - Egger, R.

N1 - Export Date: 14 December 2023 Correspondence Address: Yu, J.; School of Tourism and Service Management, Am Kahlenberg 1, Austria; email: [email protected] Funding text 1: None. References: Ahn, R.J., Cho, S.Y., Tsai, S.W., Demystifying computer-generated imagery (CGI) influencers: the effect of perceived anthropomorphism and social presence on brand outcomes (2022) J. Interact. Advert., pp. 1-9; Aramendia-Muneta, M.E., Olarte-Pascual, C., Ollo-López, A., Key image attributes to elicit likes and comments on Instagram (2020) J. Promot. Manag., pp. 1-27; Araujo, T., Living up to the chatbot hype: the influence of anthropomorphic design cues and communicative agency framing on conversational agent and company perceptions (2018) Comput. Hum. Behav., 85, pp. 183-189; Arsenyan, J., Mirowska, A., Almost human? A comparative case study on the social media presence of virtual influencers (2021) Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud., 155; Baek, T.H., Bakpayev, M., Yoon, S., Kim, S., Smiling AI agents: how anthropomorphism and broad smiles increase charitable giving (2022) Int. J. Advert., 41 (5), pp. 850-867; Baklanov, N., The Top Virtual Instagram Influencers In 2021. HypeAuditor (2021), https://hypeauditor.com/blog/the-top-instagram-virtual-influencers-in-2021/; Baltrusaitis, T., Zadeh, A., Lim, Y.C., Morency, L.-P., OpenFace 2.0: facial behavior analysis toolkit (2018) 2018 13th IEEE International Conference on Automatic Face & Gesture Recognition (FG 2018), pp. 59-66. , IEEE; Bass, B., Fink, N., Price, M., Sturre, L., Hentschel, E., Pak, R., How does anthropomorphism affect user's trust, compliance, and performance on a decision making automation task? (2011) Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 55, pp. 1952-1956. , Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA 1; Beattie, A., Edwards, A.P., Edwards, C., A bot and a smile: interpersonal impressions of chatbots and humans using emoji in computer-mediated communication (2020) Commun. Stud., 71 (3), pp. 409-427; Bharadwaj, N., Ballings, M., Naik, P.A., Moore, M., Arat, M.M., A new livestream retail analytics framework to assess the sales impact of emotional displays (2022) J. Market., 86 (1), pp. 27-47; Bharadwaj, N., Shipley, G.M., Salesperson communication effectiveness in a digital sales interaction (2020) Ind. Market. Manag., 90, pp. 106-112; Blondel, V.D., Guillaume, J.-L., Lambiotte, R., Lefebvre, E., Fast unfolding of communities in large networks (2008) J. Stat. Mech. Theor. Exp., 2008 (10); Campos, B., Shiota, M.N., Keltner, D., Gonzaga, G.C., Goetz, J.L., What is shared, what is different? Core relational themes and expressive displays of eight positive emotions (2013) Cognit. Emot., 27 (1), pp. 37-52; Chen, C.-P., Forming digital self and parasocial relationships on YouTube (2016) J. Consum. Cult., 16 (1), pp. 232-254; Chen, S.H., Chen, Y.H., A content-based image retrieval method based on the google cloud vision api and wordnet (2017) Intelligent Information and Database Systems: 9th Asian Conference, ACIIDS 2017, Kanazawa, Japan, April 3-5, 2017, Proceedings, Part I 9, pp. 651-662. , Springer International Publishing; Cheung, M.L., Leung, W.K., Aw, E.C.-X., Koay, K.Y., “I follow what you post!”: the role of social media influencers’ content characteristics in consumers' online brand-related activities (COBRAs) (2022) J. Retailing Consum. Serv., 66; Chuah, S.H.-W., Yu, J., The future of service: the power of emotion in human-robot interaction (2021) J. Retailing Consum. Serv., 61; Clark, E.A., Kessinger, J.N., Duncan, S.E., Bell, M.A., Lahne, J., Gallagher, D.L., O'Keefe, S.F., The facial action coding system for characterization of human affective response to consumer product-based stimuli: a systematic review (2020) Front. Psychol., 11, pp. 1-21; Da Silva Oliveira, A.B., Chimenti, P., "Humanized robots": a proposition of categories to understand virtual influencers (2021) Australas. J. Inf. Sys., 25; Deng, F., Jiang, X., Effects of human versus virtual human influencers on the appearance anxiety of social media users (2023) J. Retailing Consum. Serv., 71; Djafarova, E., Rushworth, C., Exploring the credibility of online celebrities' Instagram profiles in influencing the purchase decisions of young female users (2017) Comput. Hum. Behav., 68, pp. 1-7; Drenten, J., Brooks, G., Celebrity 2.0: Lil Miquela and the rise of a virtual star system (2020) Fem. Media Stud., 20 (8), pp. 1319-1323; Egger, R., Text representations and word embeddings: vectorizing textual data (2022) Appl. Data Sci. Tourism: Interdiscipl. Approaches, Methodol. Appl., pp. 335-361; Ekman, P., An argument for basic emotions (1992) Cognit. Emot., 6 (3-4), pp. 169-200; Ekman, P., Friesen, W.V., Facial action coding system. [Database record] (1978) APA PsycTests; Fischer, A.H., Becker, D., Veenstra, L., Emotional mimicry in social context: the case of disgust and pride (2012) Front. Psychol., 3, p. 475; Fotheringham, D., Wiles, M.A., The effect of implementing chatbot customer service on stock returns: an event study analysis (2022) J. Acad. Market. Sci., , Advance online publication; Gambino, A., Fox, J., Ratan, R., Building a stronger CASA: extending the computers are social actors paradigm (2020) Human-Mach. Commun., 1, pp. 71-86; Gentina, E., Kratzer, J., An integrative model of the influence of self-esteem on adolescents’ consumer innovativeness: the mediating role of social network position and need for uniqueness (2020) Ind. Innovat., 27 (10), pp. 1110-1132; Goh, K.M., Ng, C.H., Lim, L.L., Sheikh, U.U., Micro-expression recognition: an updated review of current trends, challenges and solutions (2020) Vis. Comput., 36 (3), pp. 445-468; Goldenberg, A., Gross, J.J., Digital emotion contagion (2020) Trends Cognit. Sci., 24 (4), pp. 316-328; Grandey, A.A., Fisk, G.M., Mattila, A.S., Jansen, K.J., Sideman, L.A., Is “service with a smile” enough? Authenticity of positive displays during service encounters (2005) Organ. Behav. Hum. Decis. Process., 96 (1), pp. 38-55; Grundner, L., Neuhofer, B., The bright and dark sides of artificial intelligence: a futures perspective on tourist destination experiences (2021) J. Destin. Market. Manag., 19; Gunnery, S.D., Hall, J.A., Ruben, M.A., The deliberate duchenne smile: individual differences in expressive control (2013) J. Nonverbal Behav., 37 (1), pp. 29-41; Henderson, J.M., Human gaze control during real-world scene perception (2003) Trends Cognit. Sci., 7 (11), pp. 498-504; Herring, S.C., The coevolution of computer-mediated communication and computer-mediated discourse analysis (2019) Anal. Digit. Discourse, pp. 25-67; Huang, M.-H., Rust, R.T., Engaged to a robot? The role of AI in service (2021) J. Serv. Res., 24 (1), pp. 30-41; Hwang, K., Zhang, Q., Influence of parasocial relationship between digital celebrities and their followers on followers’ purchase and electronic word-of-mouth intentions, and persuasion knowledge (2018) Comput. Hum. Behav., 87, pp. 155-173; Jones, A.R., Lee, S.-E., Factors influencing engagement in fashion brands’ Instagram posts (2022) Fash. 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PY - 2024/1/1

Y1 - 2024/1/1

N2 - Focusing on the application of artificial intelligence, this study investigates the impact of emotional display on user engagement with computer-generated imagery influencers through the lens of the computers are social actors (CASA) framework. It breaks down emotions into individual muscle movements (i.e., facial action units). By using facial recognition based on 1,028 pictures shared by Lil Miquela, the findings disclose the significance of happiness, sadness, disgust, and surprise in triggering user engagement when promoting diverse products with visually captivating content. The findings highlight the importance of balancing the intensity of muscle movement to streamline the interplay between technology, human behaviour, and digital communication.

AB - Focusing on the application of artificial intelligence, this study investigates the impact of emotional display on user engagement with computer-generated imagery influencers through the lens of the computers are social actors (CASA) framework. It breaks down emotions into individual muscle movements (i.e., facial action units). By using facial recognition based on 1,028 pictures shared by Lil Miquela, the findings disclose the significance of happiness, sadness, disgust, and surprise in triggering user engagement when promoting diverse products with visually captivating content. The findings highlight the importance of balancing the intensity of muscle movement to streamline the interplay between technology, human behaviour, and digital communication.

KW - Computer-generated imagery

KW - Facial action unit

KW - Social media

KW - artificial intelligence

KW - human behavior

KW - imagery

KW - muscle

KW - social media

KW - technology adoption

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/8c5ab4da-ac89-3ba3-bf81-8514b82eec44/

U2 - 10.1016/j.jretconser.2023.103560

DO - 10.1016/j.jretconser.2023.103560

M3 - Article

SN - 0969-6989

VL - 76

JO - J. Retail. Consum. Serv.

JF - J. Retail. Consum. Serv.

ER -

Artificial intelligence-generated virtual influencer: Examining the effects of emotional display on user engagement

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