Psychological and Technical Drivers of Anthropomorphism in Artificial Intelligence Tools: A Fractal Fuzzy Analysis Across Healthcare, Finance, and Marketing Industries

Psychological and Technical Drivers of Anthropomorphism in Artificial Intelligence Tools: A Fractal Fuzzy Analysis Across Healthcare, Finance, and Marketing Industries | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Psychological and Technical Drivers of Anthropomorphism in Artificial Intelligence Tools: A Fractal Fuzzy Analysis Across Healthcare, Finance, and Marketing Industries Duygu Güner Gültekin, Serhat Yüksel, Serkan Eti, Hasan Dinçer This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7519907/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 12 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Anthropomorphism in artificial intelligence tools is central to human-technology interactions. However, the lack of systematic identification of the most influential factors influencing the development of this phenomenon in the literature presents a significant problem. When the factors that reinforce anthropomorphism are not clarified, both conceptual ambiguities and practical problems arise. Existing studies in the literature emphasize the importance of these factors but generally focus on single factors and do not sufficiently prioritize the combined evaluation and prioritization of different criteria. This deficiency creates a significant research gap. The aim of this study is to identify the most critical factors affecting the development of anthropomorphism in artificial intelligence tools and to reveal the differences between these factors across sectors. To this end, a comprehensive literature review is conducted, and a total of ten criteria are identified under three dimensions. In this study, three separate fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making models are developed for the healthcare, finance, and marketing sectors, and the dataset is generated using the opinions of five experts in the field. To consider the demographic characteristics of the experts, a Euclidean distance-based expert weighting method is applied, and the updated SIWEC technique, which integrates standard deviation and expert weights, is used to calculate the criteria weights. Furthermore, fractal-based Sierpinski Triangle fuzzy sets are adapted to the proposed model to model uncertainty more flexibly and precisely. The main contributions of the proposed model to the literature can be summarized in four dimensions: (1) providing a more accurate method compared to existing triangular, trapezoidal, spherical, and type-2 sets by developing new fractal-based fuzzy sets; (2) enabling the development of sector-specific strategies by conducting comparative analyses across three different sectors; (3) obtaining more realistic criterion weights with the updated SIWEC technique; and (4) using an expert weighting approach that produces more rational results by overcoming the problem of assuming equal weighting of expert opinions. According to the findings, the most important criterion in the health sector is the perception of reliability (.141), in the finance sector, the perception of reliability (.177) and ethical compliance (.172), and in the marketing sector, behavioral consistency (.119) comes to the fore. Anthropomorphism artificial intelligence strategy development psychological indicators fuzzy decision-making Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 19 Nov, 2025 Reviews received at journal 16 Nov, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 07 Nov, 2025 Reviews received at journal 07 Nov, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 31 Oct, 2025 Reviews received at journal 17 Oct, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 08 Oct, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 08 Oct, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 08 Oct, 2025 Editor invited by journal 25 Sep, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 04 Sep, 2025 First submitted to journal 04 Sep, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7519907","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":531576863,"identity":"3f6baf49-41ec-436e-b476-167e7f562e02","order_by":0,"name":"Duygu Güner Gültekin","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Istanbul Medipol University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Duygu","middleName":"Güner","lastName":"Gültekin","suffix":""},{"id":531576864,"identity":"292eadda-d1eb-471e-8427-d156e0dc435d","order_by":1,"name":"Serhat Yüksel","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAABFUlEQVRIie3RPUvDQBjA8ScUziXgeiUN+QonGURS/SwXhMsSdweRQCAuxq4pAfstMl94IC6Bro5x6eSQ0YJY89KhSGIdHe4/HLf8uJcHQKX6n5FupQCarJslajcAkyOEdwTypCfQE/IHgnpDgmPEeog31fYD3eUCJV76c/PJCKWEW8cNrLgaIqx8OT975OimVHC8yYQdzQouofTcgJywQUIFoXpDnqnOGoJuRH0mtQgbMnwza7Uh08+WnK5rvMh2e/I1TuCVEKM9JQUfUMvkngTjhJWCGDPh2ctEsDzOrvu38MKzIyJGfqwg0/e5YyZrfKu22ZW5SsO8qu8cczEphi/WFx7s2wlx+G2SXfc/iEqlUqkO+garHmbJFHTQZAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"Istanbul Medipol University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Serhat","middleName":"","lastName":"Yüksel","suffix":""},{"id":531576865,"identity":"6d194433-aecd-4c9a-8e9c-4b446d9cbf73","order_by":2,"name":"Serkan Eti","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"IMU Vocational School, Istanbul Medipol University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Serkan","middleName":"","lastName":"Eti","suffix":""},{"id":531576866,"identity":"3aa702e0-c48c-442b-8fdf-46092b9cf250","order_by":3,"name":"Hasan Dinçer","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Istanbul Medipol University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Hasan","middleName":"","lastName":"Dinçer","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-09-02 16:53:15","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7519907/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7519907/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":94043614,"identity":"1377f841-4ae3-4a94-a22f-eb83b9e9d2c4","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-21 19:49:00","extension":"docx","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":218177,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscriptAntropomorphism.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7519907/v1/f2c0af521f6c0970778425dd.docx"},{"id":94043876,"identity":"f45cde29-14d5-44e0-a33a-6f0b87db8f22","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-21 19:57:00","extension":"json","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":6717,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"4b6a43ae5e3747bb9ffc782a6afd1c31.json","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7519907/v1/f2d48f19bde8158261f815f1.json"},{"id":94043436,"identity":"5a85fbd1-9e19-45e1-91f4-a29e91c0f4ae","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-21 19:41:00","extension":"xml","order_by":2,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":267148,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"4b6a43ae5e3747bb9ffc782a6afd1c311enriched.xml","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7519907/v1/f6abe807b13ad3598c07cb23.xml"},{"id":94043612,"identity":"457066b5-fac5-49cd-8baf-9bf65c368bb6","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-21 19:49:00","extension":"png","order_by":3,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":108246,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"floatimage1.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7519907/v1/02810775eeb4d14548b3ded6.png"},{"id":94043435,"identity":"d003604a-e499-41f0-af1f-0262854fced5","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-21 19:40:59","extension":"png","order_by":4,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":52029,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Onlinefloatimage1.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7519907/v1/8a075e8f32ffc8efe10cea55.png"},{"id":94043441,"identity":"48017f4b-6b24-49d8-b7dd-667d2c31864e","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-21 19:41:00","extension":"xml","order_by":5,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":265543,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"4b6a43ae5e3747bb9ffc782a6afd1c311structuring.xml","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7519907/v1/1a7e8eaf4bb635d9bd8b51c1.xml"},{"id":94043439,"identity":"369001a9-aab4-4872-9e3b-f588b0af9f38","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-21 19:41:00","extension":"html","order_by":6,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":273070,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"earlyproof.html","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7519907/v1/c0d3c7d32ae99325e5f55884.html"},{"id":94044013,"identity":"86fbbd6d-531c-4e77-9cc6-f5f99f6c628a","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-21 20:05:02","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":689122,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscriptAntropomorphism.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7519907/v1_covered_efc35d5c-03d4-4752-906e-40cebfbb70f5.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Psychological and Technical Drivers of Anthropomorphism in Artificial Intelligence Tools: A Fractal Fuzzy Analysis Across Healthcare, Finance, and Marketing Industries","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"discover-psychology","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"discpsy","sideBox":"Learn more about [Discover Psychology](https://www.springer.com/44202)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Discover Psychology","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Discover Series","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Anthropomorphism, artificial intelligence, strategy development, psychological indicators, fuzzy decision-making","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7519907/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7519907/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eAnthropomorphism in artificial intelligence tools is central to human-technology interactions. However, the lack of systematic identification of the most influential factors influencing the development of this phenomenon in the literature presents a significant problem. When the factors that reinforce anthropomorphism are not clarified, both conceptual ambiguities and practical problems arise. Existing studies in the literature emphasize the importance of these factors but generally focus on single factors and do not sufficiently prioritize the combined evaluation and prioritization of different criteria. This deficiency creates a significant research gap. The aim of this study is to identify the most critical factors affecting the development of anthropomorphism in artificial intelligence tools and to reveal the differences between these factors across sectors. To this end, a comprehensive literature review is conducted, and a total of ten criteria are identified under three dimensions. In this study, three separate fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making models are developed for the healthcare, finance, and marketing sectors, and the dataset is generated using the opinions of five experts in the field. To consider the demographic characteristics of the experts, a Euclidean distance-based expert weighting method is applied, and the updated SIWEC technique, which integrates standard deviation and expert weights, is used to calculate the criteria weights. Furthermore, fractal-based Sierpinski Triangle fuzzy sets are adapted to the proposed model to model uncertainty more flexibly and precisely. The main contributions of the proposed model to the literature can be summarized in four dimensions: (1) providing a more accurate method compared to existing triangular, trapezoidal, spherical, and type-2 sets by developing new fractal-based fuzzy sets; (2) enabling the development of sector-specific strategies by conducting comparative analyses across three different sectors; (3) obtaining more realistic criterion weights with the updated SIWEC technique; and (4) using an expert weighting approach that produces more rational results by overcoming the problem of assuming equal weighting of expert opinions. According to the findings, the most important criterion in the health sector is the perception of reliability (.141), in the finance sector, the perception of reliability (.177) and ethical compliance (.172), and in the marketing sector, behavioral consistency (.119) comes to the fore.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Psychological and Technical Drivers of Anthropomorphism in Artificial Intelligence Tools: A Fractal Fuzzy Analysis Across Healthcare, Finance, and Marketing Industries","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-10-21 19:40:55","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7519907/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"decision","content":"Revision requested","date":"2025-11-19T16:24:14+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-11-16T18:43:02+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"102896462677706609575927973773855511224","date":"2025-11-07T09:08:36+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-11-07T06:42:56+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"226023625874404650227714858553845869740","date":"2025-10-31T10:55:44+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-10-17T14:07:07+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"73424410314988816810504428812783703042","date":"2025-10-08T12:31:17+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2025-10-08T10:17:47+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2025-10-08T10:13:54+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvited","content":"","date":"2025-09-25T08:10:07+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2025-09-04T17:53:16+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"Discover Psychology","date":"2025-09-04T17:49:46+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"discover-psychology","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"discpsy","sideBox":"Learn more about [Discover Psychology](https://www.springer.com/44202)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Discover Psychology","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Discover Series","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"e486b5ed-274c-4e43-98f4-4cb758cb50dc","owner":[],"postedDate":"October 21st, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-04-15T20:08:29+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-10-21 19:40:55","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7519907","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7519907","identity":"rs-7519907","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}