To Competence or Warmth? Effects of Anthropomorphized Brand Roles and Brand Transgression on Consumer Responses

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-602-9_29How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Anthropomorphism; Brand transgression; Disappointment; Expectation Violation Theory

Abstract

Based on Expectation Violation Theory and Cognitive Appraisal Theory, this study examines how congruence between brand anthropomorphism (competence vs. warmth) and transgression type (performance vs. moral) shapes consumer reactions, with disappointment as a mediator. A 2×2 between-subjects experiment revealed a interactive effect: competence-positioned brands provoked stronger negative responses to performance failures, while warmth-positioned brands elicited stronger reactions to moral failures. Disappointment mediated this interaction. These findings enrich the anthropomorphism and brand transgression literature by introducing a role-congruence perspective, and offer practical guidance for brand strategy and crisis management.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Siyuan Zhang
AU  - Xue Lin
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/03/13
TI  - To Competence or Warmth? Effects of Anthropomorphized Brand Roles and Brand Transgression on Consumer Responses
BT  - Proceedings of the 2025 7th International Conference on Economic Management and Model Engineering (ICEMME 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 305
EP  - 314
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-602-9_29
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-602-9_29
ID  - Zhang2026
ER  -