The Influence of Product Anthropomorphism on Impulse Buying

Impulse buying is a common phenomenon in our daily life. Most of the previous studies focused on consumers’ personal characteristics, consumer status factors and shopping situational factors, rarely the factors about product. Product anthropomorphism is a common tool of marketing, which is used to improve consumers’ attitude and evaluation to product. We explored the effect of product anthropomorphism on impulse buying based on the dual-process framework of self-control. The study was in 2(anthropomorphism vs. non-anthropomorphism) × 2(Apple vs. Xiaomi) between subject design with mobile phone as the target product in which 269 participants participated. The results showed that product anthropomorphism positively affected impulse buying, product anthropomorphism positively predicted desire and negatively predicted inner conflicts. Desire and inner conflicts mediated the relationship between product anthropomorphism and impulse buying. Our research explored the relationship between product anthropomorphism and impulse buying, which had implications for anthropomorphism literature and impulse buying literature. The findings provided suggestions for marketers in product design and advertisements.