The Variation of Consumer Anthropomorphism across Cultures

Authors

  •   Phillip M. Hart Assistant Professor of Marketing, Westfield State University, 577 Western Avenue, Westfield, MA 01086
  •   Subhash Jha Assistant Professor of Marketing, Indian Institute of Management Udaipur, MLSU Campus, Udaipur - 313 001, Rajasthan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17010/ijom/2015/v45/i11/81873

Keywords:

Anthropomorphism

, Cross-Cultural, India, USA

Paper Submission Date

, January 11, 2015, Paper sent back for Revision, May 19, Paper Acceptance Date, July 23, 2015.

Abstract

Over the last 8 years, marketing research has begun to empirically probe consumer anthropomorphism or instances when consumers treat a product as human in one or more ways. Though theories of anthropomorphism commonly recognize that the phenomenon varies across cultures, no empirical effort in marketing or any other discipline has demonstrated this. The present research conducted a survey in India and the United States regarding four products commonly owned by students. The results demonstrated that for Indian consumers, product anthropomorphism is more commonplace, but less influential on their product evaluations as compared to American consumers.

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Published

2015-11-01

How to Cite

Hart, P. M., & Jha, S. (2015). The Variation of Consumer Anthropomorphism across Cultures. Indian Journal of Marketing, 45(11), 7–16. https://doi.org/10.17010/ijom/2015/v45/i11/81873

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