Belyn Thompson • 2024 McNair Summer Research Symposium • July 8, 2024

Belyn Thompson

Class of 2026

Major: Digital Marketing

Mentor: Zecong Ma, PhD

St. Mary’s University

The Human Touch: Exploring Emotional Attachment Responses to Human

and Artificial Intelligence (AI) -Generated Imagery

The recent advancement in artificial intelligence (AI) powers numerous image generation tools

for various purposes, including marketing. In this article, we are particularly exploring human’s

emotional attachment towards human-generated images compared to AI-generated images. From

the literature, we found that the mirror neuron network could play a major role in why humans

have a stronger connection to human-generated images than AI-generated images. The effect of

seeing oneself in an image and being able to relate can enhance the emotional interaction with

the image whereas with AI-generated images we see a decrease. Finding a slight decrease in

emotional attachment to AI-generated images in contrast to human-generated images often fails

to evoke the same connection due to the lack of human elements. However, the reaction to AI-

generated images can vary widely due to circumstance. In each case, any diminished emotional

response to AI-generated images leads to lower purchase intent, since emotional attachment is a

key driver in consumer decision-making. Therefore, by understanding the psychological

reasoning of how consumers perceive images in advertising, marketers are better equipped to

handle AI-image generation and advertising. As the world progresses the need to have proficient

knowledge of the usage of AI in marketing allows us to get ahead of the AI trend and refine

target markets with the scope of AI and AI-image generation.

Keywords: Advertising, Artificial Intelligence (AI), AI-generated Images, Consumers,

Emotional Attachment, Mirror Neurons, Purchase Intent, Human-generated

Images