Communications in Humanities Research ISSN: 2753-7072
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Research Article

The Impact of AI News Anchor Anthropomorphism on Public Opinion Attitudes: A Social Presence Mediation Model Moderated by Topic Context

Yuran ZhangXi’an International Studies University*

* Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

With the widespread deployment of AI digital anchors in mainstream news contexts, the mechanisms through which their anthropomorphic design shapes users’ public opinion attitudes warrant systematic empirical investigation. Grounded in the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) theoretical framework, this study employs content analysis to quantitatively examine 1,200 user comments pertaining to AI news anchors on the Weibo platform. Appearance anthropomorphism, and behavioral anthropomorphism serve as external stimuli (S); social presence serves as the organism-level mediating variable (O); and public opinion attitude constitutes the response-level outcome variable (R). News topic type is operationalized into five categories—political/current affairs, finance/business, social/livelihood, technology/culture, and sports/entertainment—as a moderating variable. Results show that both anthropomorphism dimensions strongly predict social presence (βs > 0.43, p < .001), which fully mediates their effects on attitude (large f²s). Attitudes vary by topic, and behavioral anthropomorphism’s effect is stronger in finance/business than in political topics (B = 0.222, p = .015). These findings advance the theoretical integration of AI communication effects research and online public opinion research, and offer practical guidance for differentiated public opinion governance of AI anchors in the era of intelligent media.

Keywords: AI News Anchors; Public Opinion Formation; Anthropomorphism; Social Presence; SOR Theory
Published: June 8, 2026
DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/2026.34175
Volume: CHR Vol.111
pp. 91-99
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