The collision of tradition and fashion: How anthropomorphizing museum exhibits influences cultural inheritance

Abstract

This study examined how museum exhibit anthropomorphism (MEA) influences cultural inheritance from the perspective of visitor cultural learning. Study 1 utilized a TF-IDF improved LDA topic model to identify the psychological processes and learning outcomes associated with MEA and developed a conceptual model. Study 2 validated this model through a scenario-based experiment (N = 302). Findings revealed that MEA fosters cultural inheritance by generating three positive learning outcomes: disseminating historical knowledge, improving value cognition, and awakening heritage responsibility. Perceived playfulness and sense of presence were found to be significant mediators between MEA and visitors’ cultural learning outcomes, while processing fluency was not. The research contributes to knowledge on novel outcomes of anthropomorphism from communal-educational perspectives. Practical implications for museums are also discussed.