How Users Perceive and Respond to Digital Humans: A Scoping Review of Agency, Embodiment, Social Role, and Response Outcomes

Digital humans are emerging as a form of mediated communication, appearing as virtual influencers, virtual agents, avatars, VTubers, AI companions, and other humanlike digital entities across social media, entertainment, commerce, and online communities. Research on how users perceive and respond to these entities remains fragmented across disciplines. This scoping review synthesizes evidence on users' perceptions of and responses to digital humans. Following established scoping review guidance and PRISMA-ScR reporting principles, we searched Scopus, Web of Science, and EBSCO for English-language, peer-reviewed studies published between 2016 and 2025. Fifty-one studies met the inclusion criteria and were synthesized descriptively and thematically. The synthesis identified three recurring dimensions of user perception (i.e., perceived agency, perceived embodiment, and perceived social role) and three broad response domains: psychological, relational, and behavioral. These findings suggest that users' responses to digital humans are shaped by more than human-likeness alone, with capability, embodied presence, and social role also emerging as important interpretive dimensions. The evidence base was concentrated in marketing and commerce, with limited attention to broader media contexts, long-term interaction, cultural diversity, and negative or ambivalent responses. Overall, this review provides an evidence-organizing framework for understanding how users interpret, relate to, and act toward digital humans.