Understanding Users’ Attitudes and Intentions to Use Anthropomorphic Technology: Role of Gender and Technology Self-Efficacy

A growing body of literature is emerging on using AI-enabled anthropomorphic technologies to assist in interactions with humans. The present research uses two experiments to investigate the impact of the gender of the anthropomorphic technology, users’ gender and users’ technology self-efficacy on their attitude and intention towards using anthropomorphic technology. The findings of study 1 suggested that, for gender-neutral tasks, users tend to favour anthropomorphic technology with the opposite gender. This inclination can be understood through the lens of the heterophily theory within the context of customer–seller relationships. The findings of study 2 suggested that users with high technology self-efficacy have more positive attitudes and intentions to use anthropomorphic technology than users with low technology self-efficacy. Also, the findings suggest that users with high technology self-efficacy prefer the female version of anthropomorphic technology, while those with low technology self-efficacy prefer the male version. Findings contribute to academic knowledge and offer practical implications for crafting user-centric anthropomorphic technology solutions in the ever-evolving technological landscape, empowering individuals and facilitating the integration of technology into their daily lives.