When Temptations Come Alive: How Anthropomorphism Undermines Self-Control

We examine how anthropomorphizing a temptation impacts consumer self-control. Six studies show that anthropomorphizing a tempting product impairs self-control not by boosting desire strength but by decreasing consumers’ experience of conflict toward consuming the product—an alarm that signals a need for self-control. As a result, consumers are less likely to initiate self-control and are more likely to indulge in the product. This process occurs because an anthropomorphized product acts as another agent in the self-control dilemma, which decreases the extent to which consumers attribute the cause of and responsibility for their consumption to themselves (i.e., internal attribution).