Controlled experiment reveals ideal self-image congruence impacts consumer attitudes in digital advertising, suggesting emotional effects complicate persuasion.
The rise of virtual influencers, or AI-generated personas mimicking human influencers, introduces new dynamics to digital persuasion globally. This study investigates how ideal self-image congruence and issue congruence affect consumers' advertising/issue attitudes and participation intention within a climate change PSA context. Structural equation modeling results from a controlled experiment (N = 263) involving a VI-led "No Straws" campaign reveal that both congruence types positively influence advertising attitude, which in turn fully mediates the path to issue attitude and participation intention. However, ideal self-image congruence exerts a paradoxical negative direct effect on issue attitude, which suggests that highly idealized VIs may evoke negative emotions that hinder persuasion. This "paradox of idealization" challenges assumptions of uniformly positive congruence effects and refines congruence theory for VI-based PSA by highlighting its stage-specific, emotionally contingent effects and the compensatory function of advertising attitude. These findings contribute to global debates in public communication and digital advertising.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Cho et al. (2025) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: