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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Digital Public Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1555218
This article is part of the Research Topic Advancing Public Health through Generative Artificial Intelligence: A Focus on Digital Well-Being and the Economy of Attention View all 3 articles
Will You Accept a Virtual Human as a Friend?: Exploring the Role of Virtual Humans in Mood Management and Mental Health Support
Provisionally accepted- 1 University of Florida, Gainesville, United States
- 2 Sungkyunkwan University, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea
This study aims to examine whether people intend to accept virtual humans as a kind of friend and engage in mood management. The study applies the Cognitive Behavioral Theory of Pathological Internet Use integrated with the Technology Acceptance Model and the Uncanny Valley Effect to explain why people who prefer online social interaction use virtual humans for mood management, and to examine whether they will accept virtual humans as friends. The result shows that the preference for online social interaction has a positive impact on using online chatting for mood management, both for casual chatting and therapeutic chatting.Individuals seeking casual chatting perceive usefulness and ease of use for virtual humans, while those seeking therapeutic chatting perceive only usefulness. Perceived usefulness and ease of use have a positive effect on the intention to accept virtual humans as friends. However, perceived eeriness does not have a moderating effect between the variables.
Keywords: Virtual human, mood management, Cognitive Behavioral Theory of PIU, Technology acceptance model, Uncanny valley effect
Received: 03 Jan 2025; Accepted: 28 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lee, Chang and Chan-Olmsted. 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:
Doyeon Lee, University of Florida, Gainesville, United States
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