Andrea Vocino, Deakin University

Marta Massi, Athabasca University

Sandro Castaldo, Bocconi University

AI is increasingly central to consumer-brand interactions across digital and physical channels, raising questions about how consumers form and maintain trust, evaluate brand authenticity, and retain agency in automated decision environments. This special issue seeks to understand the psychological mechanisms underlying consumer responses to AI-mediated marketing, particularly how trust develops across diverse touchpoints and human involvement levels.

Authenticity and consumer agency emerge as critical concerns when AI shapes brand communications and customer choices. As generative AI and personalization tools become more prevalent, consumers must evaluate whether experiences feel genuine and aligned with brand values, while simultaneously navigating questions of autonomy and control in algorithmically curated environments. The issue welcomes diverse methodological approaches to advance theory, measurement, and practical understanding of these interconnected phenomena.

Appel publié par Psychology and Marketing. Voir l'appel sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Potential topics

• Trust formation, calibration, repair, and withdrawal in AI-mediated consumer-brand interactions across channels and touchpoints
• Consumer judgments of authenticity in AI-generated content, recommendations, service encounters, and brand communications
• Trust transfer between human employees, algorithmic agents, platforms, and brands in omnichannel and phygital journeys
• Consumer agency, autonomy, control, and reactance in algorithmically curated or automated marketing environments
• Psychological and design cues (e.g., disclosure, explainability, transparency, anthropomorphism) that affect trust and authenticity
• Comparative consumer responses to human, AI, and hybrid service provision in retail, hospitality, health, education, and luxury contexts
• Mechanisms of resistance, acceptance, and adaptation to AI across different risk levels, involvement levels, and product categories
• Cross-cultural, generational, and demographic differences in responses to AI-mediated marketing and phygital experiences
• Measurement development and validation for trust, authenticity, agency, and related constructs in AI-enabled consumer settings
• Conceptual integrations linking consumer psychology, service systems, and digital platform research in AI-mediated markets

Timeline

• January 31, 2027: Submission deadline