Rethinking Expectancy Disconfirmation in Consumer Responses to AI-Generated Creative Content
通过六个实验发现，AI表现低于预期反而增加消费者选择其内容的可能性，而表现高于预期则降低可能性，原因在于过度表现引发威胁感和去人性化，而表现不足则减少威胁并促进人性化。
AI is increasingly generating creative content, from ads to visual designs, but consumers often respond with aversion. Across six experiments, we show when and why this resistance can be reduced. We reveal a counterintuitive effect of expectancy disconfirmation: AI underperforming increases the likelihood that consumers choose its content (compared with human-generated content), whereas AI overperforming decreases it. This effect is driven by overperformance triggering perceptions of threat and dehumanization, whereas underperformance reduces threat and fosters humanization. These findings challenge traditional views of expectation disconfirmation. We also identify managerially actionable boundary conditions of this effect.