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TRUVACE RECORD VERSION
record: TRV-2026-2501
version: 1
kind: certified
reason: Certified into the record
timestamp: 2026-11-12T07:43:54.128942Z
status: published
lens: trace
sector: labor
headline: Beyond Human–AI interaction: exploring the influence of AI anthropomorphism on work engagement
dek: Purpose This study examines how anthropomorphic cues that make AI agency socially salient influence employee work engagement in mandatory, performance-oriented human–AI collaboration. It distinguishes AI agency from AI anthropomorphism, tests affective and evaluative motivational mechanisms and identifies perceived AI threat as a boundary condition grounded in the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model. Design/methodology/approach Across two pilot studies and two main experiments (total N = 501), we used immersive w…
gain_title: In experiments with 501 participants, anthropomorphic AI raised work engagement through emotional bonding with the AI and through a motive to make a good impression on it.
problem_title: In the same experiments, when participants perceived a high AI threat, the positive effects of anthropomorphism on emotional bonding, impression management motive and work engagement became non-significant.
trace_subject: Humanlike AI design and employee work engagement in mandatory human-AI collaboration
gain_reading: In experiments with 501 participants, anthropomorphic AI raised work engagement through emotional bonding with the AI and through a motive to make a good impression on it.
gain_evidence: Anthropomorphic AI enhanced work engagement through two motivational routes
problem_reading: In the same experiments, when participants perceived a high AI threat, the positive effects of anthropomorphism on emotional bonding, impression management motive and work engagement became non-significant.
problem_evidence: When threat was high, the positive effects of anthropomorphism on emotional bonding, IMM and work engagement became non-significant
quick_read: A peer-reviewed study built from two pilot studies and two main experiments, 501 participants in total, tested how humanlike cues in AI affect employee work engagement. Participants worked through immersive workplace role-playing scenarios in which collaboration with AI was mandatory and performance-oriented.

Anthropomorphic AI raised engagement by two routes: an emotional one, in which people bonded with the AI, and an evaluative one, in which they wanted to make a good impression on it. The authors call the second route performing for AI.

The benefit depended on how threatened people felt. When perceived AI threat was high, the effects of humanlike design on bonding, impression management and engagement were no longer significant. The authors suggest replacement-related threat drains the psychological capacity that humanlike cues need to work as job resources.
limitation: The findings come from role-playing scenarios in experiments rather than from observation of employees in real workplaces.
tag: Dual reading
key_points: The study combined two pilot studies and two main experiments with a total of 501 participants. | Scenarios were immersive workplace role-plays of mandatory, performance-oriented human-AI collaboration. | Emotional bonding with the AI was one route linking humanlike design to higher work engagement. | Impression management motive, or performing for the AI, was a second route to higher engagement. | High perceived AI threat made the effects on bonding, impression management and engagement non-significant. | The authors frame threat as a hindrance demand within the Job Demands-Resources model. | The findings offer a contingency explanation for the anthropomorphism paradox: benefits of humanlike design depend on the surrounding AI-threat climate.
rundown: The research separates AI agency from AI anthropomorphism. It examines humanlike cues that make an AI's agency socially salient, without treating anthropomorphism as the same thing as agency.

The team combined social response theory with the Job Demands-Resources model. Their dual-pathway model has anthropomorphic design acting on engagement through emotional bonding and through an acquisitive impression management motive, with perceived AI threat acting as a hindrance demand that weakens both paths.

Results supported both paths. Humanlike AI raised engagement through bonding and through the wish to perform well for the AI, but the effects were significant only when perceived threat was not high.

For workplaces, the findings suggest that making AI more humanlike may not raise engagement where employees fear being replaced. The authors say the payoff of humanlike design depends on the AI-threat climate around it.
sources:
- peer_reviewed | Information Technology & People | https://doi.org/10.1108/itp-06-2025-0862 | 2026-10-23
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