Digitally created online celebrities (so-called virtual influencers) have appeared on various social media and video streaming platforms. While the scientific community has recently started to take an interest in this new phenomenon, it still remains mostly unclear how online audiences engage with—and relate to—these artificial digital creations. To address the identified research gap, we conducted a preregistered experiment (N = 179), comparing viewers’ parasocial interactions (PSIs) with either a human or a virtual influencer. Based on natural stimuli, we find that viewers’ parasocial response does not differ significantly between the two groups. However, by focusing on several theoretically relevant mediator variables, we uncover two opposing effects at play: While a significant direct effect signifies stronger PSIs with the virtual influencer, participants also attribute this persona with less mental human-likeness and similarity to themselves—which ultimately suppresses the observed advantage. Potential explanations for our results are discussed.

数字化创建的网络名人（所谓的虚拟影响者）出现在各种社交媒体和视频流媒体平台上。尽管科学界最近开始对这一新现象产生兴趣，但仍不清楚在线观众如何参与并与这些人工数字创作相关联。为了解决已确定的研究空白，我们进行了预先注册的实验（N = 179)，将观众的准社会互动 (PSI) 与人类或虚拟影响者进行比较。基于自然刺激，我们发现观众的准社会反应在两组之间没有显着差异。然而，通过关注几个理论上相关的中介变量，我们发现了两个相反的影响：虽然显着的直接影响意味着虚拟影响者的 PSI 更强，但参与者也认为这个角色在心理上与人类的相似性和与自己的相似性较低——这最终抑制了观察到的优势。讨论了对我们结果的潜在解释。