Are You Human? Investigating the Perceptions and Evaluations of Virtual Versus Human Instagram Influencers

Abstract

Virtual influencers (VI) are on the rise on Instagram, and companies increasingly cooperate with them for marketing campaigns. This has motivated an increasing number of studies, which investigate our perceptions of these influencers. Most studies propose that VI are often rated lower in perceived trust and higher in uncanniness. Yet, we still lack a deeper understanding as to why this is the case. We conduct 2 studies: 1) a questionnaire with 150 participants to get the general perception for the included influencers, and 2) an electroencephalography (EEG) study to get insights into the underlying neural mechanisms of influencer perception. Our results support findings from related works regarding lower trust and higher uncanniness associated with VI. Interestingly, the EEG components N400 and LPP did not modulate perceived trust, but rather perceived humanness, uncanniness, and intentions to follow recommendations. This provides a fruitful beginning for future research on virtual humans.