Chubby or thin? Investigation of (in)congruity between product body shapes and internal warmth/competence

Extending the body shape literature to the field of product design and marketing, this research explores how anthropomorphic products' humanlike body shapes influence consumer evaluation and purchase intention (PI). Findings in Studies 1-2 indicate that a chubby product shape is more likely to trigger perceptions of Agreeableness, whereas a thin humanized shape is more likely to trigger perceptions of Conscientiousness. Moreover, product attitudes are more favorable and PI is higher when products' internal attributes (i.e., warmth and competence) match product humanized body shapes (i.e., chubby shape-warmth attribute or thin shape-competence attribute) than when shapes and product attributes mismatch (Studies 3-5). The effect of such body-shape-product-attribute congruity is mediated via perceptions of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness (Studies 3-5), and generalizable to marketing scenarios involving buyers/users' various occupations and different personality traits (Studies 6-7). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).