When parasocial relationships meet food technology neophobia: understanding consumer responses to virtual influencer marketing of upcycled foods.

Purpose: This study examines how virtual influencers' social attractiveness, perceived authenticity, and self-disclosure are associated with consumers' purchase intention toward upcycled foods. It further investigates parasocial relationships as a mediating mechanism and food technology neophobia as a boundary condition that may constrain the translation of relational closeness into purchase intention. Methods: Data were collected through a questionnaire survey, yielding 443 valid responses. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized relationships, bias-corrected bootstrapping with 5,000 resamples was employed to assess the mediating effects, and interaction-term and simple slope analyses were conducted to examine the moderating role of food technology neophobia. Results: Social attractiveness, perceived authenticity, and self-disclosure were all positively associated with parasocial relationships, which, in turn, were positively associated with purchase intention toward upcycled foods. Parasocial relationships partially mediated the associations between all three virtual influencer characteristics and purchase intention. Food technology neophobia significantly weakened the positive association between parasocial relationships and purchase intention. Conclusion: The findings indicate that consumer responses to upcycled foods recommended by virtual influencers reflect both relationship-building processes and technology-related concerns. Social attractiveness, perceived authenticity, and self-disclosure provide complementary relational cues that support parasocial relationship formation, while food technology neophobia limits the extent to which this psychological closeness translates into purchase intention. Firms marketing upcycled foods through virtual influencers should combine coherent persona management and sustained relationship building with transparent communication about ingredient origins, processing procedures, product safety, and nutritional quality.