Emotional expression of AI can reduce effect of social exclusion on perceived anthropomorphism

While both an individual's low social connectedness and an agent's emotional expression can trigger anthropomorphism, it is important to investigate their interaction. This is because, in realistic conversational artificial intelligence (CAI) usage scenarios, these factors are expected to influence perceptions of CAI not only independently but also through their interplay. This study investigated how social exclusion influences anthropomorphism in interacting with CAI, and whether the AI agent's emotional expression moderates this effect by employing a fictitious conversation with an AI agent. Participants (N = 120) were randomly assigned to either an emotional AI condition where emotional words are expressed by AI agent (n = 53) or to a control condition (n = 67), where no emotion words are expressed. Social exclusion was also measured using a social exclusion scale. Results showed that the main effect of emotional AI condition on anthropomorphism was not significant. However, social exclusion increased anthropomorphism significantly. Furthermore, the moderation effect of social exclusion and emotional AI condition on anthropomorphism was significant. Specifically, social exclusion increased anthropomorphism only in the control condition. These findings tentatively suggest that an emotionally expressive CAI may serve as a form of “social snacking,” temporarily alleviating social hunger when direct human interaction is unavailable and, in turn, reducing users’ propensity to anthropomorphize the technology.