How culture shapes consumer responses to anthropomorphic products

Abstract

Anecdotal evidence suggests that Eastern consumers respond more favorably to anthropomorphic products than their Western counterparts. In the present work, we examine the validity of this common intuition and uncover the specific cultural dimension underlying this difference in consumer response. Specifically, across a cross-national field study and three controlled experiments, we demonstrate that collectivistic consumers favor anthropomorphic products more than non-anthropomorphic products, whereas non-collectivistic consumers do not display this relative preference. This interactive effect holds across various product categories, regardless of whether collectivistic thinking is measured, manipulated, or operationalized based on nationality or ethnicity. We offer managerial and theoretical implications that stem from our findings.