ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Personality and Social Psychology
This article is part of the Research TopicReimagining roles and identity in the era of human - AI collaboration - Volume 2View all articles
Digital anchors vs. human anchors: A Study of the Effects of Credibility Endorsement and Psychological Distance on Policy Adoption Intention
Provisionally accepted
- 1Guangxi University School of Public Policy and Management, Nanning, China
- 2The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Division of Public Policy, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China
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Purpose/Significance] Faced with the increasing application of digital human technology in the field of public policy dissemination, this study aims to compare the differences in the effects of human and digital human anchors. It explores the mechanisms of psychological distance, anthropomorphism, and credibility endorsement in this context to provide empirical guidance for optimizing policy dissemination practices in the digital era.[Methods/Procedures] Three online experiments were conducted with a between-groups design to systematically manipulate the type of policy dissemination subject (human vs. digital anchors), the degree of digital human anthropomorphism (high vs. low), and credibility endorsement (high vs. low). After viewing policy videos, subjects were recruited online to measure psychological distance and policy adoption intention. Process macros were used to test mediation and moderation. [Results/Conclusions] The study found that (1) human anchors enhance policy adoption intention more than digital anchors; (2) psychological distance plays a partial mediating role; (3)high anthropomorphism degree can narrow the gap between the psychological distance of digital and human anchors; and (4) strong credibility endorsement brings highly anthropomorphic digital closer to humans in terms of psychological distance ,while low anthropomorphizers are still at a disadvantage. The effect of digital anchors policy communication results from a complex interaction between subject characteristics, external empowerment, and audience psychology.
Keywords: Digital anchors, Anthropomorphism, psychological distance, credibility endorsement, human anchor
Received: 04 Jul 2025; Accepted: 30 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 chen, Zeng and qiu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yuqiyu Zeng, yuyi22853@gmail.com
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