3.3 Survey Procedure and Measures
Participants were randomly assigned to view one of the four videos.
Roughly half saw an organic spokesperson and half a synthetic
spokesperson (286 organic and 275 synthetic). Participants were not
informed that the video may be AI-generated, to avoid biasing
impressions and in order to test H3. IRB approval was granted with this
understanding, due to the minimal realistic harm such a deception would
produce. Instead, participants were asked to give their feedback under
the guise that they were viewing a possible pitch video for a business
expansion opportunity, without being told that such venture was
fictitious. Following the viewing, participants answered a series of
series of survey questions designed to assess various dimensions of the
video’s impact, including persuasive effectiveness and brand impression.
Answer options were given on a five-point Likert scale in ascending
value from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree.
Video effectiveness (H1) was measured by the composite average of three
questions. While argumentation is complex, three foundational
characteristics were drawn from the literature to provide a composite
view of how well the video pitch effectively could move the viewer.
After viewing the Plant Haul expansion pitch video, participants rated
how strongly they agreed that the pitch was understandable (Clark, 2008;
Hoffjann, 2022) and memorable (Duarte, 2012). Participants then directly
whether or not they found the proposal convincing.
Brand impression (H2) was likewise measured here as a composite score of
three characteristics. Three measures salient in the brand image
literature were likewise measured in this study in order to produce a
composite brand image (H2) rating. These include how competent (Aaker et
al., 2010), trustworthy (Chaudhuri & Holbrook, 2001), and likeable
(Nguyen et al., 2013) the brand is perceived to be by respondents. After
viewing the video, participants rated how strongly they agreed that the
fictitious business, Plant Haul, was competent, trustworthy, and
likable.
Participants were then offered the chance to provide open-ended
responses on the strengths and weaknesses of the pitch.
After rating the video, participants were asked to note whether the
video they viewed was an organic human spokesperson video or an
AI-generated avatar video (H3). The survey also collected demographic
data, providing an opportunity for a more nuanced analysis of the impact
across different viewer segments.