IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joreco/v88y2026ics0969698925003273.html

Emotional divergence among virtual avatar types: A topic-based study using LDA and DistilBERT

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Ying
  • Huam, Hon Tat
  • Hamid, Abu Bakar Abdul

Abstract

Improving user experience depends on knowing users' emotional reactions to various kinds of avatars since avatars are becoming more and more significant in digital communication. Four avatar types: anime style avatars (ASA), virtual image ambassadors (VIA), digital twin avatars (DTA), and hyper-reality avatars (HRA). A total of 32,891 user comments were collected from Weibo, one of the largest Chinese social media platforms, and pre-processed. Text analysis was conducted using word frequency statistics, TF-IDF, LDA topic modeling, and sentiment classification (positive, neutral, negative) via a fine-tuned DistilBERT model. Results show that ASA and VIA associated more positive emotions, while DTA and especially HRA, showed higher levels of neutral and negative emotions, consistent with the Uncanny Valley theory. Emotional responses varied considerably between participants, and entertainment, aesthetics, and virtual reality integration were most salient. This study illustrates the emotional difference between categories of avatars, verifies Use and Satisfaction theory, anthropomorphism and the Uncanny Valley, and has real-world implications for avatar design and emotional marketing.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Ying & Huam, Hon Tat & Hamid, Abu Bakar Abdul, 2026. "Emotional divergence among virtual avatar types: A topic-based study using LDA and DistilBERT," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:88:y:2026:i:c:s0969698925003273
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104548
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698925003273
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104548?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ives Chacourre Wangninanon Gogan & Ziqiong Zhang & Elizabeth Damian Matemba, 2018. "Impacts of Gratifications on Consumers’ Emotions and Continuance Use Intention: An Empirical Study of Weibo in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-20, September.
    2. De Cicco, Roberta & Iacobucci, Serena & Cannito, Loreta & Onesti, Gianni & Ceccato, Irene & Palumbo, Riccardo, 2024. "Virtual vs. human influencer: Effects on users’ perceptions and brand outcomes," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    3. Zhao, Xiangqi & Huang, Zhe, 2024. "A method for exploring consumer satisfaction factors using online reviews: A study on anti-cold drugs," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    4. Sánchez-Franco, Manuel J. & Arenas-Márquez, Francisco J. & Alonso-Dos-Santos, Manuel, 2021. "Using structural topic modelling to predict users’ sentiment towards intelligent personal agents. An application for Amazon’s echo and Google Home," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    5. Liu, Fanjue & Wang, Rang, 2025. "Fostering Parasocial Relationships with Virtual Influencers in the Uncanny Valley: Anthropomorphism, Autonomy, and a Multigroup Comparison," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    6. Qin, Huanyu & Xie, Zhipeng & Ding, Chen & Wang, Jingyuan & Xu, Yi, 2024. "Healing or hesitation? The impact of anthropomorphism on consumers' repair intentions for products," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    7. Hollebeek, Linda D. & Abbasi, Amir Zaib & Schultz, Carsten D. & Ting, Ding Hooi & Sigurdsson, Valdimar, 2022. "Hedonic consumption experience in videogaming: A multidimensional perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    8. Li, Huajun & Lei, Yueqiu & Zhou, Qi & Yuan, Hong, 2023. "Can you sense without being human? Comparing virtual and human influencers endorsement effectiveness," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    9. Xie-Carson, Li & Benckendorff, Pierre & Hughes, Karen, 2023. "Not so different after all? A netnographic exploration of user engagement with non-human influencers on social media," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    10. Boyu Zhang & Hongyang Yang & Tianyu Zhou & Ali Babar & Xiao-Yang Liu, 2023. "Enhancing Financial Sentiment Analysis via Retrieval Augmented Large Language Models," Papers 2310.04027, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2023.
    11. de Vries, Lisette & Gensler, Sonja & Leeflang, Peter S.H., 2012. "Popularity of Brand Posts on Brand Fan Pages: An Investigation of the Effects of Social Media Marketing," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 83-91.
    12. Kim, Do Yuon & Lee, Ha Kyung & Chung, Kyunghwa, 2023. "Avatar-mediated experience in the metaverse: The impact of avatar realism on user-avatar relationship," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    13. Gil Appel & Lauren Grewal & Rhonda Hadi & Andrew T. Stephen, 2020. "The future of social media in marketing," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 79-95, January.
    14. Heidary Dahooie, Jalil & Raafat, Romina & Qorbani, Ali Reza & Daim, Tugrul, 2021. "An intuitionistic fuzzy data-driven product ranking model using sentiment analysis and multi-criteria decision-making," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    15. Jbid Arsenyan & Agata Mirowska, 2021. "Almost human? A comparative case study on the social media presence of virtual influencers," Post-Print hal-05176250, HAL.
    16. Kull, Alexander J. & Romero, Marisabel & Monahan, Lisa, 2021. "How may I help you? Driving brand engagement through the warmth of an initial chatbot message," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 840-850.
    17. Ioannis Krasonikolakis, 2022. "Uses And Gratifications Theory In E-Commerce: Habit And Social Presence," Eurasian Journal of Business and Management, Eurasian Publications, vol. 10(1), pages 1-18.
    18. Yan, Ji & Xia, Senmao & Jiang, Amanda & Lin, Zhibin, 2024. "The effect of different types of virtual influencers on consumers’ emotional attachment," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    19. Gerrath, Maximilian H.E.E. & Olya, Hossein & Shah, Zahra & Li, Huaiyu, 2024. "Virtual influencers and pro-environmental causes: The roles of message warmth and trust in experts," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    20. Hou, Shengjie & Zhang, Xiang & Yi, Biyi & Tang, Yi, 2022. "Public attitudes on open source communities in China: A text mining analysis," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    21. Kim, Inhwa & Ki, Chung-Wha & Lee, Hyunhwan & Kim, Youn-Kyung, 2024. "Virtual influencer marketing: Evaluating the influence of virtual influencers’ form realism and behavioral realism on consumer ambivalence and marketing performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    22. Shivaji Alaparthi & Manit Mishra, 2021. "BERT: a sentiment analysis odyssey," Journal of Marketing Analytics, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(2), pages 118-126, June.
    23. Stanca, Liana & Dabija, Dan-Cristian & Câmpian, Veronica, 2023. "Qualitative analysis of customer behavior in the retail industry during the COVID-19 pandemic: A word-cloud and sentiment analysis approach," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    24. Dabiran, Ehsan & Farivar, Samira & Wang, Fang & Grant, Gerald, 2024. "Virtually human: anthropomorphism in virtual influencer marketing," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xia, Hui & Yang, Yuqing & Wang, Xinchun, 2025. "Too pretty to resist? Exploring the impact of virtual influencers’ beauty level on consumer reactions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    2. P. Pushparaj & Bijay Prasad Kushwaha & Sanjeev Prashar, 2025. "A systematic literature review of virtual influencers in marketing using bibliometric analysis," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 22(3), pages 631-662, September.
    3. Wang, Xueying & Zhang, Yuexian, 2025. "Product-independent or product-dependent: The impact of virtual influencers’ primed identity on purchase intention," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    4. Guo, Zhiwei & Yang, Hongtao & Yang, Wang, 2025. "A new social media programme for brands? A study of the relationship between virtual influencers and brand followers," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    5. Thompson, Jamie & Igarashi, Reika & Krowinska, Agata & Logan-McFarlane, Ashleigh, 2025. "Is it real or not? construction of meaning and identity in virtual influencer marketing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    6. Yao, Ruiqi & Qi, Guijie & Sun, Hua & Sheng, Dongfang, 2025. "A double-edged sword: Exploring the effectiveness of expressed subjectivity in virtual influencer endorsements," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    7. Cao, Yijia & Yao, Yongheng (Angus) & Wang, Fang, 2026. "Anthropomorphism of virtual influencers: A congruence perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 89(PA).
    8. Laghari, Amjad Hussain & Ping, Han & Memon, Shabana & Makhdoom, Zohaib Hussain, 2025. "Human vs. virtual influencers in Crisis: How attribution and crisis response shape brand trust," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    9. Audrezet, Alice & Koles, Bernadett & Moulard, Julie Guidry & Ameen, Nisreen & McKenna, Brad, 2025. "Virtual influencers: Definition and future research directions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    10. Shao, Zhucheng, 2026. "Dual congruence in live-streaming commerce: A mixed-method to examine the role of virtual influencers and live content on consumer purchase behavior," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    11. Joel-Edgar, Sian & Chowdhury, Soumyadeb & Nagy, Peter & Ren, Shuang, 2025. "Virtual influencers in social media versus the metaverse: Mind Perception, blame judgements and brand trust," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    12. Yao, Yuexin & Liu, Qihua & Guo, Mengqian, 2025. "Virtual influencers in brand image recovery: A comparative study of younger and older brands after celebrity endorsement crises," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    13. Padma Angmo & Rachna Mahajan & Antonio Batista Silva Oliveira, 2025. "Do they look human? Review on virtual influencers," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 75(3), pages 2425-2457, September.
    14. Liu, Fanjue, 2026. "Who and how to pair with a virtual influencer? The impact of co-endorser type, perceived distance, and gender congruence on consumer responses in virtual influencer collaborations," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 89(PA).
    15. Ozdemir, Ozan & Karabulut, Feyzan & Messinger, Paul R., 2025. "Can(’t) touch this: The effect of form realism and product domain in virtual influencer endorsements," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 101(2), pages 298-310.
    16. Song, Jiehang & Zheng, Chundong & Lv, Xiarong & Font, Xavier, 2025. "The endorsement effectiveness of virtual influencers in nonprofit fundraising: The role of appearance and voice pitch," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 219(C).
    17. Meng, Jinlin & Zhang, Jing, 2025. "Interplay of Imagery: Unveiling the impact of Co-branding anthropomorphized couple imagery on consumer engagement," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    18. Xia, Hui & Zhang, Longyun & Chen, Junjie & Wang, Xinchun, 2025. "Decoding virtual influencer endorsement using machine learning: The role of virtual influencer, posting, and disclosure characteristics," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    19. Jiang, Kan & Zheng, Junyuan & Luo, Shaohua, 2024. "Green power of virtual influencer: The role of virtual influencer image, emotional appeal, and product involvement," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    20. Wang, Bin & Han, Yao & Kandampully, Jay & Lu, Xiaoli, 2025. "How language arousal affects purchase intentions in online retailing? The role of virtual versus human influencers, language typicality, and trust," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:88:y:2026:i:c:s0969698925003273. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-retailing-and-consumer-services .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.