Romantic Relationships with Virtual Agents and People's Marriage Intention in Real Life: An Exploration of the Mediation Mechanisms.

Virtual agents (VA) are animated characters with human-like appearances or behaviors, which are designed based on artificial intelligence-powered software programs to interact with people in various circumstances (e.g., nonplayer characters in video games, and virtual assistants like Siri). With more and more people turning to VA to fulfill their romantic needs, this study examined how this phenomenon was linked with people's intention to marry someone in real life. We propose that romantic relationships with VA may be both positively and negatively related to marriage intention through three mediation mechanisms: the fulfillment of relatedness, romantic anthropomorphism, and the theory of planned behavior. Based on a survey of 503 Chinese participants, we found that the fulfillment of relatedness in romantic relationships with VA, relationship authenticity, and the desire for real-life relationships with VA were all negatively related to marriage intention. Nevertheless, the experiences of positive affect and competence with VA were positively related to marriage attitudes and perceived control, which were further positively related to marriage intention. Contrary to our expectation, immersion with VA was also positively rather than negatively associated with compliance with social norms and marriage intention. Furthermore, significant gender differences were found among the mediation paths with effect sizes larger among men. By identifying and exploring these mediation mechanisms, this study provides practical suggestions for treating romantic relationships with VA and designing virtual agent-based interventions.