{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/121321"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/121321","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Persuasiveness of artificial intelligence versus human influencers: The interaction between agent knowledge and message construal through mentalizing","abstract":"Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2025-08-01","abstract_html":"Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2025-08-01","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Lee, Dongchan"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"M.S.","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Advertising","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Ham, Chang-Dae","Sar, Sela","Su, Leona Yi-Fan"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2023,"date_issued":"2023-08","date_published":"2023-08","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:57Z","subjects":["Influencer Marketing","Agent Knowledge","Construal Level","Mentalizing"],"languages":["en","eng"],"rights":["Copyright 2023 Dongchan Lee"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121321","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Ham, Chang-Dae","Sar, Sela","Su, Leona Yi-Fan"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Lee, Dongchan"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2023-08","2023-07-20"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Advertising"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M.S."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Influencer Marketing","Agent Knowledge","Construal Level","Mentalizing"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en","eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2023 Dongchan Lee"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121321"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2025-08-01","The student, Dongchan Lee, accepted the attached license on 2023-06-25 at 18:04.","The student, Dongchan Lee, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2023-06-25 at 18:15.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2023-07-20 at 10:53.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #19461 on 2023-12-04 at 17:18:08","The recent emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) influencers has risen in prominence. As they gain popularity, it is expected that AI influencer marketing will shape the future of social media advertising. However, little empirical research has examined the persuasiveness of AI influencers compared to human influencers. To understand the nascent trend of AI influencer marketing, the present research examined the interplay between the types of influencers and persuasive messages by focusing on the concept of agent knowledge—lay beliefs that consumers hold about influencers as persuasion agents—and construal levels at which the agents and messages are mentally represented. Employing 2 (agent knowledge: AI influencer vs. human influencer) × 2 (message construal: low-level vs. high-level) between-subjects factorial experimental designs across two studies, the findings showed that AI influencers are as similarly effective in persuasion as human influencers when low-level messages are represented for utilitarian products, but human influencers outperformed their AI influencer counterparts when high-level messages are represented (Study 1). However, the interaction effects did not occur in hedonic products (Study 2). Additionally, the study revealed that mentalizing plays a mediating role between agent knowledge and persuasion coping outcomes, contingent on the levels of message construal. The moderated mediation analysis demonstrated that high-level messages facilitate, whereas low-level messages inhibit the underlying mentalizing mechanism. Based on the findings, theoretical and managerial implications are discussed."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Persuasiveness of artificial intelligence versus human influencers: The interaction between agent knowledge and message construal through mentalizing"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Ham, Chang-Dae","Sar, Sela","Su, Leona Yi-Fan"],"dc:creator":["Lee, Dongchan"],"dc:date":["2023-08","2023-07-20"],"dc:description":["Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2025-08-01","The student, Dongchan Lee, accepted the attached license on 2023-06-25 at 18:04.","The student, Dongchan Lee, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2023-06-25 at 18:15.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2023-07-20 at 10:53.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #19461 on 2023-12-04 at 17:18:08","The recent emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) influencers has risen in prominence. As they gain popularity, it is expected that AI influencer marketing will shape the future of social media advertising. However, little empirical research has examined the persuasiveness of AI influencers compared to human influencers. To understand the nascent trend of AI influencer marketing, the present research examined the interplay between the types of influencers and persuasive messages by focusing on the concept of agent knowledge—lay beliefs that consumers hold about influencers as persuasion agents—and construal levels at which the agents and messages are mentally represented. Employing 2 (agent knowledge: AI influencer vs. human influencer) × 2 (message construal: low-level vs. high-level) between-subjects factorial experimental designs across two studies, the findings showed that AI influencers are as similarly effective in persuasion as human influencers when low-level messages are represented for utilitarian products, but human influencers outperformed their AI influencer counterparts when high-level messages are represented (Study 1). However, the interaction effects did not occur in hedonic products (Study 2). Additionally, the study revealed that mentalizing plays a mediating role between agent knowledge and persuasion coping outcomes, contingent on the levels of message construal. The moderated mediation analysis demonstrated that high-level messages facilitate, whereas low-level messages inhibit the underlying mentalizing mechanism. Based on the findings, theoretical and managerial implications are discussed."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121321"],"dc:language":["en","eng"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2023 Dongchan Lee"],"dc:subject":["Influencer Marketing","Agent Knowledge","Construal Level","Mentalizing"],"dc:title":["Persuasiveness of artificial intelligence versus human influencers: The interaction between agent knowledge and message construal through mentalizing"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Advertising"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["M.S."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:57Z"}